


World Similarities (Book 2)

by IntrestsoftheMind



Series: World Similarities [2]
Category: Super Mario Bros.
Genre: Action/Adventure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Gaming, Mild Gore, Teambuilding, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2016-06-19
Packaged: 2018-05-04 11:44:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 64,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5332934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IntrestsoftheMind/pseuds/IntrestsoftheMind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soren's adventure begins again as he is transported to a new world. He must work by this worlds rules in order to survive and get back home. He will meet new friends, enemies and become stronger in order to survive the strife of this new world and get back to where he belonged.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1 (New World)

It had been two weeks since I had come back from the world of Hyrule and my life was definitely different since then thanks to Alice. I always wondered why Alice and I ended up in that situation so I researched what I could about it. No matter how close I got though I could never find any info on what happened. I researched even the tiniest details to see if I could find anything about what happened to us. Nothing came up though, it was frustrating to go through an adventure like that and not be able to find out why it happened to us. The only thing I had to remember the adventure was Alice and my body. The strangest thing was when I looked over my body it was more tanned then before and I had more muscle then before; it seemed like the adventure had influenced my natural body from what I did in Hyrule. When I looked over Alice’s chart I noticed that the same happened to her, her charts showed a large difference in body mass from before she went to Hyrule to after she came back.  
“Hmmm…strange.”  
“Soren.” I looked over at Alice and she gave me a glare, “Looking over a girls chart is an invasion of privacy you know!” She snatched the papers from my hand and set them next to her hospital bed. Since I came back every day I would come to Alice’s hospital and hang out with her until I had to head home. It was one of the best parts of my day and every time I would get off the bus and rush here to hang out with her.  
“It’s just strange that our bodies become stronger even though we went to another world.”  
“Why is that strange?”  
“Well there’s the fact that this version of you can’t walk and yet the version in Hyrule somehow influenced your body giving the version of you here muscle mass.” This muscle mass wasn’t just for show either, I had tested out my new muscles and found I was not only stronger but faster with my practice swords. Everything I had worked on in Hyrule had made me better in my world.  
“I thought you said there was no difference?”  
“Even so this seems strange, it doesn’t add up.”  
“Soren, we went to another world, defeated dozens of creatures on our own, use magic, explosives and sustained a number of bruises and cuts from our encounters; I think the idea of THIS being the strangest thing is pretty far down on the list.” She was right about that, the biggest question had to be who sent us there and how they accomplished that, “Now pay attention. It’s your turn.” She handed me the NES controller and I looked at the screen. We were playing the old 1985 Super Mario Bros. and playing the two player version where we switched off every time we died. We were on world 7 area 3 and having trouble with the jumping from platform to platform bit. I tried my turn and came close but miss timed the jump falling to my death. We had 2 lives left. I gave a grunt of anger and handed it back to Alice, “We can defeat a giant pig creature but we can’t jump to a stupid platform!?” She died by forgetting to jump and growled.  
“Games and the real thing are very different. Maybe it’s because we’re use to real reflexes.” I died by jumping to early. The game gave us the game over screen and I threw my hands up in defeat. This game worked on different rules…also I’ve never played the original Mario before.  
“Ah forget it; let’s just play a Mario Party game.” Alice pulled out Mario party 2 and we spent the rest of the day playing it. Let’s just say, I could move circles around her in this game.

It was six when we stopped playing; lucky for us we finished the last match just in time.  
“Looks like I win.” I said gloating. She threw a game at me and stuck her tongue out at me childishly.  
“Whatever; see you tomorrow.” She gave me a smile and I turned around opening the door.  
“See you tomorrow.” I closed the door and started walking down the hall. It was nice to have Alice as a friend, my days were happy because I had someone to spend time with after school instead of going home; in all honesty I kind of just like spending as much time as I could away from home. I even got to play games with her which was really nice…crap that’s right she threw a game at me and I still have it! I looked down at the game she threw at me to see it was Super Mario Bros. I turned around to head back to her room and saw the game begin to glow. What was happening now? The game shinned brightly eventually blinding me and I felt my body lighten. Just then I heard that female voice speak to me again.  
“I need your help again Soren. Please help me.”  
Wait, was this happening again? I thought it was over though?

 

I opened my eyes and looked around me, as I stood up I felt solid cement on my hands and looked to see the floor was covered in red bricks. When I looked around I saw the world was filled with floating bricks and gaps that appeared to lead nowhere. I looked at myself to see my clothing was the same as it was in Hyrule. The only difference was that my gloves were made of leather than cotton and my boots were a much tougher leather than they were before. I had no weaponry and my utility belt was gone meaning I had no means of defending myself. Suddenly I looked over to see a short mushroom like creature rush at me head first, I side stepped and it stumbled forward rolling and ended back on its feet. Think Soren think; without a weapon I have to have some way to fight back. It came at me again and I pushed my foot forward kicking it backwards. It rolled backwards and ended up on its head unable to move. This was weird, that was the easiest fight I’ve had…ever. As I contemplated I felt someone tap my shoulder and turned around to see a turtle staring me in the face with an angry look. It reeled its fist back and swung at me punching me in the face…what was happening!? I collected myself and punched him back; I pulled my hand back and shook it in pain feeling my knuckles were sore. I had no experience with fighting with my fists; I was much more competent with a weapon. The turtle came at me again and I moved backwards avoiding his barrage of fists. I had no way of defending myself and this turtle could end up being my end. That would be the worst way to die and that wasn’t going to happen to me! I pulled back and ran forward stopping in front of the walking turtle and kicked him sending him falling back on his shell unable to move, I pushed it into the nearby pit and watched as it fell into the abysmal pit. Obviously I was in the world of the Mushroom Kingdom as I was attacked by a walking brown fungus and walking turtle. I gave a sigh feeling exhausted and looked past the pit to see a castle on the far end. If I was going to find out what was happening I would need to find people and that castle was my best bet. The pit was too large to jump across…maybe. Knowing this world I might be able to get across by jumping. I looked at my boots to see if it had some form of enhancement to help me jump…nothing noticeable. I put the boot back on and looked above me to see a small brick way a few feet above me. I moved back and jumped up grabbing the end of the path that floated above me; I tried to pull myself up but ended up hanging there for a minute; pull ups were never my forte. I scrambled getting up but made it and walked across the pit looking down at it out of interest. I couldn’t see the bottom of the pit; it was just an endless abyss that seemed to look back into me with the same emptiness. I looked away feeling sick and ran across not wanting to disorient myself. I jumped down feeling my knees buckle slightly in pain. This wasn’t going to be easy but I had to make it to that castle if I was going to find out what I should do to get out of here. I had to get back home, being back here didn’t make any sense. I had finally come to terms with my problems and made my life better by meeting a true friend and I was going to get back to see her again. I felt another long journey ahead of me and collected myself ready for another quest to get home.


	2. Chapter 2 (Toad)

I walked forward observing the world around me finding it very…strange. It seemed vibrant and colorful compared to Hyrule and even more so compared to Earth. The colors shot at me like a bright care bare episode; it was refreshing to see a less murky world but still made me a little sick. I walked forward and saw another goomba come charging at me, I reeled my leg back and kicked it forward and felt a muscle pull on my leg. This was crazy, how the hell am I supposed to fight like this!? As the goomba rolled back into a large pipe and sat there dizzy I looked up to see a floating mystery block. This world was much more magical and cartoony then Hyrule; hopefully I wouldn’t have to experience the torment I suffered in Hyrule, especially since I was on my own. I climbed up and punched the block below me and felt my hand shoot off in pain. While shaking my hand a strange mushroom popped out of the box, when I picked it up I looked at it to see it had a smiling face on it.  
“This world is already creeping me out.” Knowing the rules of mushrooms in Mario I stuffed it in my mouth and started chewing. No matter how nice it felt to grab a mushroom in the game the real thing was not the same experience. It tasted like a sock rolled in dirt and then covered in sour old cheese; I quickly choked it down feeling my stomach trying to return the contents to the sender and felt something happen to my body, I felt my muscles expand and contract quickly causing pain to shoot all over my body. What the hell was up with this world!? These mushrooms caused intense pain when their supposed to make you stronger! 

The pain eventually faded and I stood up shakily feeling my legs wince in pain. After a few minutes I felt I could walk again and moved back down to the ground floor. When I jumped down I expected my legs to buckle from the impact shock but felt the shock hit me less powerfully then before…strange. I turned around to see the goomba come back at me and thought for a minute…let’s try something.

I threw my fist forward and watched as the goomba flew backwards colliding with the pipe and fell to the ground unconscious. That was amazing! Only a few seconds ago I was only able to make the creature dizzy and now I could knock the goomba out with a punch. Maybe that mushroom did do something; I looked at my arms and saw that my muscles were slightly more toned…and red. That’s it! The mushroom made my muscles strain themselves in a rapid manner so that they became tougher and more powerful! That’s how Mario beat this game; no fat plumber could take on a kingdom without an ace up his sleeve. Right, Mario; if I was going to finish this story I was going to need to find Mario and help him beat Bowser, the formula must be the same for this world as it was for the last, otherwise I wouldn’t need to help this world. Wait, I’m wasting time thinking about this, I needed to get to that far castle.

I rushed forward and jumped over the large pipe and kept running; looks like the mushroom also improved my jumping ability. I kept moving trying to keep my pace and as I jumped to clear a gap I felt my head hit something. When I fell to the ground I rubbed my head in pain and watched as a green mushroom fell into my lap. When I examined it I remembered the one-up mushrooms from the game and looked at it unsure of what it would do to me if I ate it. I stuffed it in my pocket and kept running forward this time clearing the gap instead of hitting my head. I approached a group of monsters and looked out to see a turtle glaring at me. I glared back and knew this would be tough…this made me feel pathetic, my biggest challenge was a walking turtle; this better just be a low point in this journey or I’m annexing this from my battle history.

I rushed forward and socked it in the jaw and watched as it stumbled back in pain

I felt like I was playing the game back home just moving forward and jumping over creature of mutant descent as far as I knew and climbed the stairway feeling my goal within reach. I jumped forward and grabbed the flag pulling it off the pole and landed on my feet with a sense of triumph. Those mushroom power-ups were going to be like level ups for me and I was going to need all of them to fight Bowser. I looked at the flag to see a G plastered on the cloth. G? Isn’t it supposed to be a skull or at least an M if Mario passed through here? A G just seemed…strange. Was there another traveler here? Were ‘they’ here!? I looked around cautiously feeling like something was going to jump out at me…nothing, must have been my imagination. I shook the thought from my mind and entered the small castle in front of me.

When I got inside I looked around to see that the structure was crumbling and covered in plant life, has it been a while since this place was attacked? The smell of a septic tank caught my attention after a few steppes and I plugged my nose. Where was that coming from? As I was following the smell I heard stone shift to my left and turned cautiously; it was a pile of stone rubble and I looked around to see that the entire structure was covered in debris. The rubble shifted again and I approached slowly and tossed the biggest piece off to see a small person wearing a mushroom like hat. I moved quickly to get them out of there, this person looked badly hurt and exhausted, and their feet were swollen and purple from lack of oxygen, their legs must have been buried in rubble.  
“T…thanks.” The person said shakily, the voice was indistinct and seemed as though it could have been a male or female voice.  
“What happened?”   
“B…Bowser…came in…destroyed the castle…and turned everyone into blocks and horsetail plants. He kidnapped the princess…please…save…h..e..r.” The toad went silent and limp and I started to panic, I rummaged through my trench cloak pockets looking for something to save them. I pulled out the green mushroom I found earlier and stuffed it into his mouth hoping the effects of it would save him from death. I watched as the color returned to the toad and watched as it jumped up completely healed.  
“Whaoooo! I feel great!” They jumped around happily and I sighed in relief at his good health, “Thanks a lot! How can I repay you?” I thought for a moment and my thoughts returned to the G emblem on the flag.  
“Actually can you tell me if anyone passed through here before me?”  
“Well…I was covered in ruble after Bowser passed through but I heard some footsteps pass through here a few hours before you came to help.”  
“Could you tell how many sets of footsteps?”  
“Well…it was weird, it was like two different pairs passed through.” Two different pairs?   
“What was the spacing between them?”  
“One pair came through here a few minutes after Bowser and then a few hours later the next pair came through.” This means it’s only been hours after Bowser has taken over the Mushroom kingdom but those two sets of people could be the cloaked man and Lissa but the second pair is up for question on who it could be and if it was only a few hours ago why is there so much foliage, “Hey, did you see any snakes pass through here?”  
“Snakes?”  
“Before you came in I heard something slither along the ground, I assumed it was snakes but you didn’t see anything?”

Suddenly I felt my leg wrapped by something and was suddenly turned upside down dangling by my leg by a green vine. I looked over to see a plant creature slither through the doorway on a vine, it was a piranha plant! I struggled to break the vine but even with my improved strength it was too strong to break with my bare hands, without something sharp to cut the vine I was stuck. The plant began to inhale deeply and an orange glow gathered inside its mouth, not good! I struggled to break the vine and brought myself up with all my strength so I could bite the vine. I bit through the vine and dropped to the ground, hastily getting up I grabbed the toad and jumped to the side out of the path of the oncoming fireball.   
“Hide!” I yelled and the Toad moved quickly to a hiding place; I quickly scanned the room looking for some way to fight but saw nothing but rubble and stems. I couldn’t fight this thing with my hands; it had razor sharp teeth and firepower. I dodge an oncoming fireball as it chased after me slithering along the ground. As I ran I thought of what I could do but couldn’t think of anything, damn it! I was useless without a sword! I stumbled forward as I was tripped by something on the ground and looked behind me to see I had tripped over a vine…a vine! The creature slithered towards me with its jaws open as I grabbed the vine and tore through it with my teeth breaking it apart. The piranha plant stopped abruptly and looked at the vine I had cut, it flailed wildly as it stopped breathing and then fell limp on the ground, it died from suffocation.

I breathed heavily, relieved that my plan had worked; I stood up and noticed the vegetation around the castle turn brown dying from being cut off from wherever this vine led. The toad came out of hiding and approached me with a smile.  
“Thank you so much!”  
“You already thanked me before.” I replied with a chuckle.  
“But you’ve saved my life twice now, that piranha plant would have eaten me alive!” Or toasted, “How can I repay you?”  
“No need but can you tell me if you know where Mario is?”  
“Mario? He left the kingdom a few weeks ago to help some other people but he may have passed through here after he heard what happened.” Good, so he should be in the kingdom at least, “Why do you want his help though? He’s nothing but a sleazy plumber with a dirty mind.” What?  
“What do you mean?”  
“Mario is the worst plumber in the kingdom, he constantly hits on the princess and treats everyone around him with disrespect and is the laziest person ever. He’s just generally an overall bad person. If you want help I would look for Luigi, his brother.” Is this how Mario was viewed before he became a hero? If this toad is telling me how bad Mario is then why would he want to be the hero of this story?  
“Why Luigi?”  
“He’s the respected brother around here; he does his job and makes up for his brothers blunders. He may be clumsy sometimes but he’s nicer, smarter and better than Mario will ever be.” So Luigi’s the ideal hero…that’s kind of funny to think about.   
“Look, you should stay here; this is the only safe place right now. With that piranha plant gone you should be safe at least for right now. If any of Bowser’s troops come through here stay hidden okay?”  
“Okay!” The toad gave me a soldier’s salute and I gave a smile and light chuckle at this.

Saying goodbye to the toad I left the caste and looked ahead to see a pipe in front of me, it seemed to beckon me inside but the smell did not. Seems this is where that smell was coming from. I looked over to see the ground level was a long dark pit with a much larger castle at the end of it; I was going to have to take the sewer path. Giving a long sigh a entered the pipe and got continued, ready to take on whatever…enemy or smell I might encounter.


	3. Chapter 3 (Sewer Travel)

I stumbled around in darkness trying to get some idea of how long this pipe was before I made it to the-  
“Ahhhh!” My next step into nothingness caused me to fall into another dark abyss. When I reached the bottom I felt intense pain shoot up through my legs from the impact shock and stumbled trying to stay on my feet. Luckily the enhanced muscles kept my legs from breaking but it still felt like my legs were trying to tear themselves apart. I kept on my feet with all my strength and tested them by taking a few steps; the first thing I noticed was the murky water slide around as my foot moved and the second was the pain running up my leg as my foot made contact with the ground. I didn’t want to move my feet but I couldn’t sit down in the water with how dirty it was, getting sick was not on my list of things to do while in the Mushroom kingdom. I shakily took a few steps in the dark trying to find some clear ground, eventually I decided to just slide my feet along the ground to avoid the pain of walking. After stumbling through the dark I hit a small dip in the ground and stepped onto it to find clear ground; I pulled onto it and sat down letting my legs recover from the shock they just suffered. 

Taking a few deep breaths I massaged my sore leg muscle trying to recover quickly. I didn’t have time to wait, as far as I know Mario is only a little bit ahead of me meaning I had to buckle up and get to him. There was also the cloaked man and Lissa who were possibly here and the G emblem person who was a wild card in my book. If I didn’t get to Mario as quick as I could he might end up dead by someone else and without him I had no way of completing this story. I stood up summoning my reserve strength and took a step into the sewer darkness. I thought for a moment trying to maneuver through the darkness and thought for a moment trying to find a solution. Maybe if I could get a fire flower somehow then I could light up the darkness but there was no way of getting one in the sewer and as far as I know…but there could be another way. 

I thought back to the magic I studied in the magic book from Hyrule and if magic worked in that world maybe I could call on it here. The wand was a channel for magic but if Mario needed an enhancement in order to use it maybe I could call on my magical ability here since I had a bit of practice…even if I haven’t practiced in a while. I thought back to the maneuvers specified in the book and made the sign with my index and middle finger, when I finished I watched as a small ember flicker on the end of my fingers illuminating my hand and lighting the floor in front of me. This may not be what I expected but it was better than nothing. I kept my hand extended and kept moving along the dry brick walkway, to my right and left were the sewer waters that ran under the kingdom and in front of me was pitch black darkness making me wonder where the sewer system started. I had to move slowly due to the darkness and always checked my surroundings afraid of what might try to sneak up on me. In my scanning I found another mushroom and a few coins as I traveled farther into the darkness.

Eventually I came across a few piranha plants that appeared out of the pipes and dodged around them trying to find a way to get rid of them. The only problem was that any of their main roots were in the pipes they came out of making it impossible to defeat them without losing the fire I lit and without it they gain the advantage. I moved around them and kept running wanting to avoid getting toasted by their fire balls and moved around trying to avoid confrontation in the darkly lit sewer. As I saw the pipe back to the surface I rushed and rushed in finding a ladder that led to a bright lit at the top and began to climb not wanting to spend another moment in the dark. 

I climbed out to see another flagpole atop a set of stairs and started moving up the stairs feeling a sense of progress. I jumped off the top and grabbed the flag off the pole and stomping into the ground excitedly. The sense of making it to the end of a level felt exhilarating every time and tearing the flag off made me feel accomplished in the fact I made it as far as the last person. I looked at the flag to see that same G emblem meaning this G person had made it this far as well. I couldn’t stop my forward momentum but I had to eat that mushroom I grabbed from the sewer; I stuffed it into my mouth and stood still taking in the pain from the tensing of my muscles and once it had passed I looked up to see I moved into the small structure to see it had suffered the same fate as the last structure…only there wasn’t any toad left alive. I passed through not wanting to dwell on what Bowser’s main goal was in destroying the toad race; he had princess Peach so why did he want the toad race gone? I moved that thought aside and moved into the area to find it was laid out into a way that forced me to jump from platform to platform and one missed jump would mean my death. 

I took a deep breath and jumped across the grassy platforms making sure that I had a clear jump from platform to platform. I felt confident after a while and kept moving until I came across a gap with… a flying turtle staring at me? I know I fought a turtle fist to fist not a few hours ago but this couldn’t get any stranger.  
“What do you want!?” It shouted at me. Talking to me just knocked it up a notch.  
“Uh…I’m looking for Mario. Have you seen him?” The turtle scoffed at me.  
“That man passed through here but he’s a monster!” Monster? What did it mean by that, “He moved through here with no regard for us and our cause and that stupid boy he travels with is just the same!” Stupid boy?   
“Someone else was traveling with him?”  
“Yeah, some stupid kid passed through here with Mario just knocking us around and treating us like nothing!” So there was another person here; from all my past knowledge I don’t remember anyone else existing in the first Mario game besides Mario, Bowser and Princess Toadstool. This meant that this person that was with Mario is also a traveler like me…which meant that the cloaked man wasn’t far behind.   
“Listen, I have to pass by you…so can you not stop my progress?” As I said that the turtle slammed into me knocking me onto a lower platform. Looks like this turtle wasn’t willing to talk to me, I jumped up hitting another hidden brick sending me back to the ground and plopping a mushroom in my lap.  
“Oww, I hate those things.” Stuffing the mushroom back in my pocket I stood up and jumped back to my platform where the turtle was flying, “Sorry but I need to pass through here, I don’t want to hurt you but I have to get by you!”  
“Not if I can help it!” The turtle rushed at me trying to ram me again, I jumped in place and landed on its shell as it flew under me. As I landed on the shell I watched as the turtle fell to the ground and watched as the wings on its shell turned to feathers in the wind, “My wings!” The turtle started to panic and then looked at me angrily, “How could you! Those were my wings!”  
“You didn’t give me much choice in the matter did you?” I replied bluntly, it was yelling at me for no reason and I wasn’t going to let it continue, “Just because some other guys are pissing you off doesn’t mean you can take it out on me, if you have a problem with how you feel take it up with who pissed you off.” The turtle went silent and then turned around walking away from me, they had a lot to think about. I turned back and kept moving, with a traveler in the equation this became a much more dire situation; the cloaked man would work towards persuading him and I had to get to him so that wouldn’t happen. I don’t know what his plan was but I didn’t want it to continue, it obviously disturbed the people he recruited and from how Lissa reacted it was obviously something that stuck with his recruits, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I climbed the stairs at the end and jumped at the flagpole tearing the G emblem off of the pole stuffing it into my pocket and looking at the giant castle in front of me. This must have been the castle in the distance from where I woke up. Here I would hopefully get an idea of the type of enemies I would be facing and find a weapon to give me a better chance of winning battles, supplies would also be helpful in this situation as I had no equipment. 

As I entered the castle I felt the room around me give off a feeling of emptiness. I examined the interior of the entryway to see no one was even at the entryway. The room inside was laid bare and empty with no one in sight. There were no sign of anybody being here, it felt…off. No wait, that wasn’t true, as I crossed the area a familiar scent wafted across my nose; it wasn’t a smell I would ever forget after I had smelled it the first time because of its distinct and completely independent scent. It was the smell of death.


	4. Chapter 4 (First Castle)

I ran forward following the scent that wafted in my nose with every frantic step. As I moved in I felt my face heat up with worry of what I would find. Suddenly I skidded to a halt seeing a bright red glow emanating from the pit in front of me, instead of the usual dark cavern that came from the hole it was filled halfway with bubbling lava that made my face sweat as I looked at it. I thought for a moment that this might be what the dead smell was but this smell did not have a burning after smell meaning that I had to head in further to find out what it was. I jumped over the pit and kept moving further in, the enemies seemed to be non-existent and the traps of fire were completely destroyed; someone didn’t just pass through here, they destroyed it. I scanned the area for any more mushrooms as in the last three areas I visited but nothing seemed to surface anywhere, it was like the entire area had not only been destroyed but also cleaned out…and if someone cleared here then the bridge might be out!

There were only two ways to get rid of each Bowser and that was by either using fireballs or dropping the bridge to drop him in lava. I rushed forward to the bridge worried that I might not be able to continue; I definitely won’t be able to if the bridge is out. I climbed up and saw the bridge was completely intact to my relief, but what was on the bridge was far more horrifying.

I know that I had fought goombas on my way here but without a weapon I used non-lethal means meaning that I left them alive. If I were given a weapon I might have defeated a few goombas, koopas and piranha plants easier but what was in front of me made me rethink fighting against these creatures. What was in front of me was an abnormally large goomba that was cut apart in large chunks and bleeding profusely. It was horrifying to see; this was an enemy that I had fought before but seeing it bleeding and with a tortured look on its face gave it a new dimension in my mind. This wasn’t just an enemy; this was a living breathing creature with a life, a heartbeat, and most likely a reason to live. Not to just live out a single minded goal like Gannons creatures but its own goal. I felt my heartbeat quicken and looked at my hands to see them shaking profusely, something about this disturbed me to a physically effecting point. When I looked down at the bloody remains I saw a life that could have been lived if it hadn’t been killed, a life like mine…and one like Alice. 

I shook those thoughts from my mind and looked around at what could have caused this. Behind the body was the end of the bridge, at the end where the ax usually was there was nothing. Above me was a moving platform that was stationary, the bottom of the platform was a large gash revealing a small machine inside attached to a steel wire that ran from one end of the platform path to the other end. I looked at the body of the goomba examining the cuts and gashes on the body. The smell made it hard to concentrate but I powered through and examined what I could. Besides the cuts I first saw I also noticed a few puncture wounds around the very large head meaning that there was either a second weapon involved or the ax used had a spear head base.   
This wasn’t too hard to figure out with my prior knowledge. I had played quite a few Phoenix Wright games and both Danganronpas giving me an idea of what to do in situations of confusion. I had a knack for thinking on my feet and this wasn’t rocket science so figuring out the circumstance was actually pretty easy.   
I continued my examination of the area and looked to see some burn marks on the wood of the bridge but only on the starting end of the bridge meaning that they came from the goomba itself. How it accomplished this was actually far simpler to explain; since Mario fought Bowser at every castle that means that the goomba was magically altered into Bowser giving it the ability to control fire.   
From what I could gather it seemed like whoever took the ax from the end of the room used it to kill the goomba and then took it with them as they left the area. This person must have been an amateur with an ax based on the large gash along the underside of the upper platform, it must have been a swing back that was too strong and ended up going over their head…I might have over analyzed this a bit. Now I have an idea of who to look for now, the traveler has a large battle ax and is traveling with Mario, the ax handler has poor control of the weapon and is prone to violence based on the carcass of the goomba left behind. But most important was that they had recently passed through here based on the koopas testimony meaning I was close to finding Mario and the traveler that was also in this world. 

I jumped down off the other end of the bridge and looked to see a Toad sitting there peacefully. It turned to me and gave a wide smile.  
“Whoa! Another person showed up!”  
“Another?”  
“Yeah, these two guys just passed through after saving me from one of Bowser’s generals.”  
“That goomba was a general?”  
“Yeah, it was tasked to protect this checkpoint; I’ve been stuck here in captivity with the goomba for a few hours until Mario showed up.” So they just passed through here, I might be able to catch up with them if I run.  
“The good thing is they killed it.”  
“What? Why?”  
“Those goombas are traitors to the mushroom kingdom! They deserve the death that this one was just given!” This toad spoke passionately about how they felt about it but I could sense a darkness looming behind those words, it gave me an uneasy feeling about the stability of the people in this kingdom, but it was understandable considering the circumstances.  
“Why did the goombas betray the kingdom anyway?”  
“We use to live in peace with them but eventually they seemed to grow quiet and avoid us. Then one day they all disappeared and a few weeks later they ended up coming back to the Mushroom kingdom with Bowser’s army with them and then they overthrew the kingdom only a few hours ago, now we only have Mario and Luigi to rely on but without Luigi we might be in trouble with just Mario.” I haven’t heard anything good about Mario so far, who is this Mario?  
“So how long ago did Mario leave?”  
“Only about thirty minutes ago.” Perfect.  
“Thanks, I’m going to try to catch up with them. Stay safe, I don’t know everything that’s out there but it’s got to be dangerous.”  
“Then you should take a weapon with you.” Weapon?  
“You have weapons?” He ushered me over to a side room and opened a door to a full scale armory filled with spears, shields, armor of various quality, swords, axes, bows and so many other supplies I couldn’t discern some of the items in there.  
“If you’re going to join Mario you’re going to need more than just your feet and fists to get through our kingdom. Please take what you need.” I examined every item that caught my interest and looked at some of the obvious items such as utility belts and light armor as well as swords and bows. When I looked at the weaponry my mind reverted back to the goomba corpse I witnessed…maybe I should avoid using any sharp weapons while I’m here; killing things with a heartbeat wasn’t something I was going to do while I was here. I wasn’t going to kill a live creature if I didn’t have to…it felt…wrong and uncomfortable in my mind when I thought of killing someone with a heartbeat and blood flow.

I took off my trench cloak and strapped the blade to my back tightening it and then put my cloak back on hiding the blade from open eyes. I didn’t want to chance killing anyone so I’m going to hold on to this in case of emergencies and ONLY emergencies. After that I equipped a light metal breastplate to my chest and arm guards to give myself a defense I could use that didn’t slow me down. I gathered a medical kit together and a few 1-up mushrooms in case of emergencies and made sure that I had a lantern and oil in case I was ever in a dark sewer again.   
“Thanks a lot.” I said strapping everything together.  
“No problem, just kill Bowser and all his lackeys!” As he said that I felt my skin crawl, those words were words of loathing and pain and they rang the bell of despair which rang a dulcet tone making the area feel much heavier and uncomfortable. 

After an awkward goodbye I continued on making sure to move quickly as I wanted to catch up to Mario and the traveler. I looked out at the area to see a bright road ahead of me with a dark look to it. In front of me was body after body of Bowser’s men killed by large gashes and stabs. With the traveler having a battle axe they became much more violent and hostile. I ran worried about what this person would do if I left them to leisurely kill I’d never live with myself knowing I could have stopped them. As I moved through the area I was shocked to see crushed turtle shells littering the ground in small pieces with the bodies of the koopas butchered to pieces. I had to stop this person; they were just what the cloaked man was looking for. Powerful, untouched by the concerns of others based on their reckless destruction of others and alone meaning he doesn’t have to worry about someone stopping him. I didn’t trust Mario to reel them back based on the stories I’ve heard about him.

I made it to a large wall and looked at the floor to see a spring loaded panel; I knew what I had to do with this. I jumped on top of it and jumped up using the springboard as an enhancement jumping on top of the wall. Once I had landed I jumped forward ripping the flag off the pole and landing down ready to keep moving. I didn’t have time to stop if I was going to catch up with Mario; there was no time to stop! I stuffed the emblem in my pocket and started running forward toward the next area.  
“Hey! That’s my flag you jackass!” I stopped mid-build up and looked behind me to see two people glaring at me. One of them was the man I was looking for; it was Mario, the hero of this world or otherwise known as the worst plumber in the kingdom. He wore his standard red shirt and blue overalls but they were covered in dirt, grime and what looked like grease from where I stood and next to him stood an African American boy about my height carrying a battle ax on his back and giving me an angry look. The emblem on top of the flag must have been his but more importantly this was the other traveler in this world. The person I was looking for.


	5. Chapter 5 (Glitch)

The boy glared at me obviously pissed at what I had just done. He wore what looked to be a mishmash of metal armor that left his arms exposed so he could swing his ax without resistance; underneath his metal patches another layer of leather armor stuck out and what looked like a leather belt with a satchel wrapped around it. Even though he was African American his skin seemed lighter than usual showing that he didn’t get out very much back in his world, he had dark very short hair and was slightly taller than me but only by a few inches; I don’t think he was older than me but he stood tall…and very angry.  
“Earth to moron! Answer me!” He shouted at me jolting me from my thoughts, “What the hell did you think you were doing! You ripped my flag off of the pole!” He wretched the emblem from my hands and shook it getting any debris off of it. I watched as he climbed up the metal pole and stuck the flag back on a jumped down without having his knees even shake, “Don’t do that again!” He pointed at me and gave me a stern look; it felt like I was a child being yelled at by his parents…might be smart to not tell him about the other three in my pocket. I looked over to see Mario look up at me quizzically; I was taller than Mario.  
“Who are you?” He asked walking up to me and staring me eye to eye a few inches from my face, “You aren’t a resident of the Mushroom kingdom, and you don’t look like you’re part of Bowser’s army.” He was breaking me down piece by piece to get to my core; he was pulling my move!

“My name is Soren and I was actually looking for you.” Mario continued to try to stare me down but from his height he was staring me up instead.  
“Why me?”  
“I was actually wondering if you were going to save the princess.” He laughed and pretended to flick away a tear in an overdramatic fashion.  
“Saving the princess? Are you serious?” His breath smelled like rotting fish and left over from the back of the fridge, I backed up closing my nose to avoid his decrepit breath, “I’m doing what I want to.”  
“What does that even mean?”  
“What it means, ‘Soren’” The other traveler cut in and held up quotation marks as he said my name; he didn’t believe my name was my name, he must be using a different name himself then, “is that were going around taking what we want from the Mushroom kingdom and fooling the remaining residents into thinking were on their side!” I didn’t know what to say, these two were common day thieves!  
“What about your home Mario? Don’t you live here?” He scoffed and gave me a grin that made my spine crawl.  
“I don’t care, this dinky little kingdom is nothing but an area of profit, annoying people and crap filled pipes that have barely any maintenance upkeep.” Because you’re supposed to be doing it, “With the money I can gain from the remains of this place I can buy a new home. Besides my brother will get around to it; he’s the one everyone loves.” The stories I’ve heard about Mario were apparently true, he was a fat, selfish, pig that didn’t care about anyone but himself and treated the kingdom like a toy he could throw away at any time, and that was exactly what he was doing now. That didn’t explain why this traveler was here.  
“Why are you with him then?” The guy gave me a snide look and flicked his nose.  
“I’m taking the glory here!”……What?  
“What?”  
“This world is mine for the saving, if Mario doesn’t want to be the hero I’m going to do it!” So he was planning to take the hero role of this world…like I tried to.  
“Hey dude can we talk in private for a moment?” I pulled him aside to where Mario couldn’t hear us and he gave me a confused look, “First off what’s your name?”  
“Just call me Glitch.” Interesting name to use, obviously fake but I’ll let that pass right now.  
“Glitch, I know that you’re from another world, I’m the same.” He gave a surprised look and started laugh.  
“Nice joke buddy, you think I’d fall for something like that, get real.” As he walked away I thought for a moment and then grabbed his arm knowing just what to say.  
“I know exactly how you got here.” He stopped and looked at me then rolled his eyes, “You were playing games when suddenly you had a moment of despair creep across your mind and then a bright glow covered your game screen and asked you a question which you replied yes to and suddenly you wake up in this world with no idea how you got where you are and what you are wearing.” He now had a shocked look on his face completely stunned by what I had just said. Looks like I hit the nail on the head with that assumption.  
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter now.”  
“Actually that’s exactly why I’m here; you have to help me convince Mario to save princess Peach.”  
“Ha! Like I’m going to give up my chance to be a hero! He doesn’t want the glory, I’ll take it.” He laughed at me like I was talking nonsense. This guy was really starting to piss me off! He spoke like he was better than me and my words were nothing but background noise in his ears. I took a deep breath collecting myself and thought of how to convince him.  
“Look, I’ve been in your shoes before, I’ve slain the monsters, I’ve saved the people but this isn’t our story. We can’t just fill those big Italian shoes; there not ours.”  
“Shows what you know, how can you know that someone else can’t fill in for where someone else decided to stop showing up? I can be a her- no, I AM a hero and I’m going to prove it.” He walked away from me leaving me in a dazed state from what he said. He wanted to prove something, but what he wanted to prove was the bigger question, being the hero was just a cover for something deeper. Didn’t have to think deeply to see something more was wrong and that might be my key to convincing him.

Well if I’m going to figure this out I’m going to need to travel with them and learn about Glitch. Taking a deep breath I re approached them; they looked at me with a skeptical eye and stopped talking immediately.  
“Obviously I can’t convince you but I can travel with you and help out, three heads are better than one right?” They eyed me up and down obviously distrustful of me and my sudden anxiousness to join them. They turned around and whispered to each other and kept darting glances during conversation cuts, “I’m tough, I can fight with the best of them and I’m very resourceful.” They returned to chattering; with the way things were going I was screwed in joining them; I need a leg up on them to convince them. I eyed around them and looked at their belts to see that their belt satchels were empty from their knapsack flatness. They must be out of supplies; didn’t they just pass through the castle? God their not only immoral but idiots as well, “I have some supplies that I could share with you guys?” They looked at me with less skepticism and more thought and turned back for one final whisper.  
“Okay.” Mario said trying to look dignified but impossible to take seriously with some sort of sauce all over his pot belly overalls, “But one a few conditions; one, you get no loot that we pillage.”  
“Done.” Don’t want any stolen money anyway.  
“Two.” Glitch started talking, “That fight against Bowser at the end is MINE, and you are not allowed to take the glory for that victory.”  
“Fine.” That one was going to be debatable, but that was for a later time.  
“Three, you sleep in the cold, and you get smaller rations than we get.” Selfish bastards!  
“…Fine, but if I’m going to follow that last one you have to meet my condition.”  
“What?”  
“You two are not allowed to kill any of Bowser’s men. No bloodshed, inner bleeding or decapitating limbs.” This was a non-negotiable in my book, the sight of blood made me feel…wrong and it didn’t go away when I looked at that goomba corpse. I wonder why though?  
“Are you crazy!?” Mario yelled at me, “These soldiers are in our way and if they must die they will die!”  
“NO BLOODSHED!” I heard myself shout and took a shaky breath in an attempt to calm myself, “Look, if I’m going to be treated like a dog then you have to meet me halfway and compromise on this…okay?” They stared at me with a look of surprise on their face and Glitch was the first to shake it off.  
“Okay, no bloodshed, we won’t kill them but then what are the rules in combat?”  
“No weapons, you can use your fists and your feet just no beat down attacks after they give up. You are not allowed to add more pain than necessary.”  
“Okay, well do that.”  
“Glitch, are you nuts!? Don’t listen to this guy!” Mario said angrily trying to reel Glitch onto his side.  
“We need the supplies and if we go back then we’ll just be in more trouble now that the sun is going down.” Glitch pointed to the sky and we both looked up to see the sun setting into the horizon, “Besides, the more time we spend going back the more chance someone else can loot the area and take the good stuff.”  
“Good point.” Good point!? That was the worst reason not to go back in my book, “Fine, let’s set up for the night.”

We started to set up the fireplace feeling the cold wind blow around us; I gathered what kindling I could find from the ransacked houses taking any fallen wood I could find. When I got back Glitch finished up a small stone pit for the kindling which I dumped inside. When I examined the pit it looked like a professional pit that campers would make in the woods on a weekly outing.  
“Where did you learn to make a pit like this?” He looked down at me and I could hear Mario scoff in the corner.  
“Who cares, he has the skill. Does it matter where he got it?” I looked over to see Mario putting his sleeping bag inside mine to make his bag warmer.  
“Yeah, it doesn’t matter, just be glad I have the skill.” Thanks to Mario the conversation seemed to shut down before it even began; if I was going to find out what Glitch’s problem was then I was going to need to separate him from Mario. I pulled out one of the rations I got from the toad and we spilt it up forty-forty-ten…I was the ten. As Glitch and Mario turned in after eating I put out the fire and wrapped myself in my cloak getting ready to fall asleep in the cold night. 

I found the traveler, but it seems like if I’m going to convince him then I’m going to need more than proof to sway him and Mario. Those two are driven by their single minded desire and those are hard shells to crack. Glitch wants to be a hero but I feel like there’s more than that and until I find out then I can’t approach him with letting Mario take the reins of this quest until I figure out what it is that nags at him. Mario, he’s fueled by his own greed and he’s supposed to be our hero, how can I pull him out of his own self-indulgence plans to actually get him to care about this land. The main problem with him was that he seemed to not care about anyone but himself; I can’t give someone a reason they should do something without a purpose for them to do something. Without those two on board then this world might fall into the abys that the cloaked man has planned for this world; even though I didn’t have proof I could just get this feeling of something more than Bowser looming over us. The wind nipped at my face harshly so I pulled my cloak up to cover my face and tried to fall asleep with the wind biting me from all around. This was going to be a long journey.


	6. Chapter 6 (Cheep-Cheep Jaws)

I woke up to the sound of chirping birds and opened my eyes seeing the daylight had flooded the area, it was morning. I stood up slowly feeling my body resist in pain; sleeping on slid brick floor did a number on my back. I looked over to see Mario and Glitch still passed out and gave a sigh. I’d better see what the next area looks like.   
Like last time it seems like the only way forward was through the sewer system as it was only a long stretch of an open pit into the abys. We couldn’t get through the sewer system easily without a fire source and my magic was too weak to illuminate all of us. Maybe Mario had a fire flower on him we could use; I looked back over to Mario to see him still sawing logs in his sleep. It was going to be a while before I could ask him. Might as well check the remains of the smaller castle…why didn’t we sleep in there?  
I entered to see it had suffered the same as the first one I went to, rubble everywhere, vines covering everything and the remains of toads that hadn’t been turned into objects. They were too far gone to save with a green mushroom, their skin was purple and they had reached that rigor mortis stage indicating that they were long past being saved. To make sure there were no surprises I cut one of the vines with a small knife and watched as they all turned brown and died. Knowing the piranha plants weakness made them easier to deal with when their stems weren’t protected by a layer if pipe.   
That’s how you got rid of them?” I turned around to see Glitch standing bewildered, “We had to run past the first one when it started attacking.”  
“Their plants, if you disconnect it from the root then the whole thing dies, same with most plants.” I explained. This was my chance, Mario was passed out, and maybe I could get him to explain his predicament, “Hey, how did you end up in this world anyway?” He looked at me confused then began to talk.  
“One minute I’m playing Mario brothers and the screen flashes to white asking me if I want to find…it and I clicked yes; next thing I know I’m waking up on a brick floor with Mario looking at me suspiciously.” It? Must be connected to his real life situation…but it didn’t explain what I needed it to. That moment he paused, he must be hiding what it really was he was asked, “What about you?” Uh oh.  
“S..Same thing, gaming, and question then poof I woke up here.  
“But you said yesterday that you had done this before. What does that mean?” Crap, he was listening.  
“This is actually the second time I’ve had to do this.” He looked surprised as I said that, must be his first time, “I actually had another partner with me when I first was taken to another world.”  
“Really.”  
“Yep, we worked together to defeat the villain of that world with the hero from that world.”  
“You should have taken the glory for yourself.”  
“No, if I had then I would have taken the place of someone who was supposed to do the job, someone more qualified to stand on the pedestal because they were from that world.”  
“But that’s why we’re here.” He pulled out a slip of paper very familiar to what I got on my adventure.

 

“We’re supposed to finish the story the natural hero couldn’t. We’re supposed to be the hero.” As he talked I felt like I was looking at a past version of me, when I first got that note.  
“No, we can’t take the place of a hero, that’s why they’re heroes; they’re unique to that world.”  
“We’re from another world.” He spoke darkly at this point, with a serious tone, “We don’t have to follow this world’s rules, we are different, we’re better than this world and that’s why we’re the heroes. The reason you’re back here is because you couldn’t own up to that and you’ll keep going into another world because I’m the hero here, not you and not Mario.” He walked away leaving me to comprehend his reasoning. His view point wasn’t skewered, his reason for being the hero was logical with the information he had but he had a god complex. He thought he didn’t have to play by this world’s rules because he wasn’t from here. Cracking that shell was going to be hard and convincing him to give up being the hero to Mario was still an impossibility.

Once Mario woke up we gathered our supplies and jumped into the pipe to the sewers. The first thing that I felt was the slight pain run through my legs from the impact and the sewer water pool into my boots. The area was pitch black as it was before so I began to move draw the runes with my fingers to give us a fire, before I could finish Mario lit a fire by snapping his fingers and held a small torch-like fire in the palm of his hands.  
“How did you do that?” I asked amazed at his ability to produce a fire magic that quickly. He reached into his overalls and pulled out a white flower and threw it into his mouth. Once he finished chewing he spit out short fire burst from his mouth; those must be fire flowers. They seemed to amplify fire magic control or gave those without it control over the element to a degree. After that we walked through the sewers knocking out any enemies we came across leaving them unconscious as we continued. 

Glitch and Mario would chat up a storm as I followed behind with my thought as my only company. I must have made a bad first impression on Glitch, he was doing his best to ignore me and whenever we made eye contact he just glared at me. Giving a sigh I let my mind wander on things I hadn’t focused on in a while. Why does my magical ability exist in this world if I don’t have a channel to use it? How do the normal mushrooms enhance my bodily ability by stretching my muscles to their limit, it should take a few days before there are any changes. I wonder how Alice is doing without me visiting. I had no knowledge of whether or not time passed normally while I was in another world and if it did then Alice is wondering where I am and most likely pissed that I’m not there right now.   
In my absent minded thinking I bumped into Glitch who had stopped for some reason. I looked over him to see we had come to a dead end with an opening to the outside in front of us. The only problem was the opening led into a giant lake that spanned to the end of the path; we were going to have to swim for it.  
“Soren I don’t think we can fight in water.” Mario brought up, “But I can still use fire-”  
“No.” I knew what he was thinking and I didn’t like it, “We’ll just swim to the other end.”  
“I don’t want to get my clothes wet though.” His overalls were already filthy, this might make them cleaner. I stripped down to my boxers and stuffed my clothes and other supplies into a water proof knapsack I picked up as part of my supplies; that castle really had everything. The others did the same except for Mario who kept his clothes on by my demand; if I had to guess he most likely didn’t wear underwear and I could do without that. 

We all jumped in and started swimming with all our might to get to the other end, the waters seemed clear and as far as I knew the only thing in the water was a few cheep-cheeps and squids. In the corner of my eye I saw a large shape move along the surface and then go back into the water…then again a few seconds later.  
“I think something is in the water with us!” Glitch yelled as we kept swimming. He was right, there defiantly was something in the water…and it was big. Suddenly Mario passed me as he swam faster and then Glitch did the same thing; it must have been chasing us now. I looked behind me to see a massive cheep-cheep cutting through the water coming at me with its mouth gapping open. I swam as fast as I could feeling my breath begin quicken. It came closer as I slowed down feeling tired and I worked double time dipping into my second wind reserve energy to make into the end of the lake. Once I hit the edge I scrambled up onto dry land and felt the ground shake as the creature hit the edge full force and sank unconscious back into the water.

Panting heavily, I was relieved to survive a recreation of Jaws with a goldfish the size of a small island. The water is definitely something to avoid in this world.  
“That was close.” Glitch said rummaging through my bag for his equipment, “Any closer and we would have been screwed.”  
“Well…HE would have been screwed.” Mario added smirking at me. This guy was a major jackass! He only cared about himself and it pissed me off to no end! Taking a deep breath a gathered up my stuff, re-equipped myself and we kept moving. When I looked over at Mario he was soaking wet from head to toe and somehow his clothes were covered in even more grime and stains from stepping in the water; how that was possible I had no clue. 

As we kept walking it was silent and it felt like the tension was ready to crush me into dust. From only a few hours with these two I’ve learned so much about them from learning so little from them. Both of them had no trust in each other, not just me; with Mario’s greed consuming him and making him distrustful of anyone because he had so much money and Glitch wanting to hog the glory making him distrustful of others as they might swoop in under him taking the glory and his chance of fame. These two showed no signs of trust and there were only two ways I was going to get them to open up; either I was going to need to almost die which I’ve done before and I would rather not…also this world doesn’t seem that hostile, or I was going to need an example of trust but for that I would need Alice here to properly show trust. Without a partner I was screwed in making these two listen to me…I miss Alice, it was simpler with her…guess this is just a challenge I have to overcome.   
We climbed the next set of stairs and as I was getting in my running stance I watched as Glitch pulled out one of his G symbol flags.  
“Why do you have those?” I asked curious to his reasoning behind this flag obsession.  
“My mark is all over this world as a hero and these flags are just a small piece of me!”  
“…So you made those?”  
“Yep!” Glitch spoke proudly about his sewing prowess making me wonder if he was not just a boy scout but also a girl scout, “This might work better actually, you tear the flag off and I attach the new one!” I was interested to see how he did that.  
“Okay I’m up for that.” I ran forward and bound off the edge. I grabbed the flag and slid down the pole clutching the piece of cloth. I looked up and watched as Glitch grabbed onto the pole and clipped it on to the string with two clothespins. He slid down and raised his hand for a high five which I returned feeling excited that the idea worked.  
“Nice one man!” He was so excited that his idea worked, “No one ever agrees to my ideas and it worked! I knew I had good ideas!” Interesting, he opened up without even knowing it.  
“Waste of time in my opinion.” Mario said walking by us; I looked over to see Glitch had stopped cheering and looked down as he passed by me sulking. Damnit, Mario ruined the mood; Glitch was so close to opening up. Oh well, at least I learned more about Glitch and he seemed to become more trustful in that moment when I went along with his plan. Maybe I wouldn’t need to use plan A or B; there might be a plan C.


	7. Chapter 7 (Reunited)

I looked out over the area to see bridges lining our way to the next castle. Weirdly the bridges seemed cut off in some parts which meant we would need to jump to each section which was okay. Since I had been eating those physically enhancing mushrooms my ability to jump has been phenomenal and my legs could absorb more shock when I land…sounds like I’m talking about steroids even though I’m not.  
“Seems simple enough to get across.” Glitch said strutting in front of me. I looked down to see the entire area was over a bed of water. Grabbing Glitch I pointed down to the water and he gave me a confused look, “So?”  
“There are none of Bowser’s men on the bridge which means that something in the water is going to kill us if we’re not careful.”  
“Whatever, we can take them.” Mario said flaming his hands up with fire.   
“No! I told you not to kill anyone!”   
“Why not! They’re scum and just in the way! Can we just kill them?”   
“NO! WE ARE NOT KILLING THEM” I took a deep breath collecting myself, I couldn’t let him out… but this guy is a sociopath, “I gave you my rations and sleeping bag to use and you had to agree to not killing Bowser’s men.” Mario grumbled lowly and put out his fire. Giving a sigh I looked back to the path to see Glitch was already halfway there as cheep-cheeps leapt out of the water as they tried to eat him.

I rushed across the first bridge to catch up and felt a hand grip my leg pulling it out from under me. I fell off the side of the bridge and gripped the wooden planks that made up the bridge trying to pull myself back up, someone just tried to trip me. I looked up to see Mario looking down at me with a dark smirk; he must have done it!  
“I’m sick of you already, this whole ‘good guy’ shtick is annoying and if you keep traveling with us then I don’t like my odds of survival.”  
“What are you talking about?” He gave out a disturbing laugh.  
“I know what you’re trying to do. You’ve been talking to Glitch over there and collaborating with him, you two are going to take me out if I let this continue; I can keep Glitch under my radar but you are the one problem I can’t resolve, every time I look at you all I see is a giant obstacle that is in our way.” Our way? Was he talking about Luigi?  
“Why are you doing this? Don’t you care about this kingdom.” He laughed with a more disturbing lower pitch in his voice.  
“Oh Soren, I could care less about this kingdom or its people or this world for that matter.” This world!?  
“Who are you!? You’re not Mario!”  
“Perceptive as ever, I suppose you had to be to elude our grasps after all…but that’s why I’m taking a different approach to it.” What did he mean, “The boss wanted you alive so he could see that other side of you but I think were done here. TIME TO DIE!” I watched as the imposter shadowed and grew taller, when he re-solidified he was six feet tall and had greasy black hair and piercing green eyes. He wore a long black cloak that wrapped around his body concealing his body. He pulled out what looked like a cleaver and raised it.

This was not good, above me stood a man who was going to kill me and below me was a bed of water full of fish whom were ten times my size and hungry. Either way I was going to die and there was no way out on my own…that’s it!  
“Glitch!”

Glitch  
“Glitch!” I heard someone shout my name and turned around in bewilderment at what I saw. Mario was nowhere to be seen and there was a weird boy on the bridge while Soren was hanging off the edge of the bridge. This was weird, why was this guy holding a cleaver, why was Soren dangling off the bridge and where did Mario go!? When I looked down at Soren he was waving at me as he tried to hold on; he needed help! The boy looked over at me and gave a smirk.  
“Before you try something stupid let’s put this in perspective.” What was he talking about, “I don’t want to interfere with what you’ve got going on, all I want to do is kill him and then you can keep going, besides…he wants to steal your hero title.” What, he does?  
“That’s a lie! Don’t believe him!”   
“I mean, he’s already saved another world; why wouldn’t he do the same here.” That’s true.  
“No! I told you what I actually did remember, I let the actual hero do his job.”   
“Which means he’s going to stop you here right?” That was Soren’s plan!? That must be why he came with me and Mario! He’s been against me since the beginning!   
“Glitch you can’t listen to him! Aren’t we working together, aren’t we friends?” He’s been working against me and he calls me a friend!? He doesn’t even trust me, “Remember, I went along with your plan for the flag. Don’t friends trust each other? Please trust me here.” He wants me to trust him? I don’t know if I should.  
“Glitch, you can’t trust him, you can’t trust anyone else but yourself. You’re the only person you should trust. After all, what other family member is there for you.” How does he know that? What else does he know? He’s right though, I can’t trust anyone. Not Soren… but also, NOT THIS GUY!

Soren  
I watched as Glitch pulled out his ax and swung at the boy causing him to back up. I climbed up quickly and pulled out my concealed blade pointing it at the enemy in front of me.  
“Maybe my conditioning was too good.” He suddenly vanished leaving me and Glitch on the bridge, what was that leaving message? I looked down to see a looming straight shadow over me, when I turned around Glitch was raising his ax at me. What was happening!? I back stepped and watched as the ax cleaved into the bridge wood.  
“Glitch stop, he’s gone!”  
“BUT YOU’RE NOT!” He swung his ax at me quickly as I continued to back step. His moves were getting faster as he swung, he was using the momentum to increase his power and speed and leaving me barely any room to dodge or back step. His next swing came at me and I didn’t have room to dodge; I blocked his ax with my sword and felt my hands go numb from the pain coursing through them as the impact shock raced from the blade to my hands in a matter of milliseconds as I was thrown backwards from the force. I staggered as I stood up using my sword as a stand to lean on; I looked at the blade to see it was cracked where the ax had made contact.  
“Why are you doing this?”  
“I CAN’T TRUST YOU, I CAN’T TRUST ANYONE BUT MYSELF.” He was going insane, the same as Alice, but this was much sooner than her, something was eating him alive.  
“Glitch, you can’t just trust yourself, you need other people.”  
“NO, THERE’S NO ONE ELSE TO TRUST, NOBODY WANTS ME AROUND, WHY SHOULD I TRUST YOU?” He was breaking down into pieces, but he was still him; that meant I could bring him back from the brink. He started swinging again as I dove in to stop him. I felt the ax collide with my shoulder sending me down as a spray of blood came into view in the corner of my eye.   
“Glitch…please…stop.” The pain was sharp and intense, it felt like my body was screaming at me and as the metal slid out of the gash it created I felt my arm go slightly numb. This battle ax was no joke…and my vision started to become hazy, “Give me… a chance.” I looked up to see a blurry Glitch raise his ax again; this might be it for me, if this had happened when we got to know each other more and trust each other than this might have ended differently. Sorry Alice, looks like I can’t be there tomorrow.

I waited for the ax to cleave me but it never came and as I opened my eyes I saw a sword blocking Glitches ax, someone just saved my life. I looked behind me to see a black ponytailed girl blocking the blow with grace and power.  
“A…lice!” She looked down at me and shoved a green mushroom in my mouth as she dragged me backwards.  
“Can you go two minutes without ending up at the end of a death sentence?” I coughed feeling my body return to its healthy self.  
“Guess not.” She hit me on the head and giggled.  
“Well, that just makes this worth it, right partner?” She outstretched her hand to me.  
“Right.” I grabbed it and she pulled me up. I don’t know how she ended up here but I was glad, as much as I thought I could do this alone I can’t, “I’m glad you’re here.” She gave me a surprised look and I saw her cheeks brighten a little.  
“Come on, let’s do this.” We both looked over at Glitch who was still losing his mind, “So what’s the plan?”  
“Knock him out, don’t kill him. He’s another traveler like us.”  
“He kind of looks like I did.”  
“I thought the same thing.”  
“Couldn’t snap him out of it?”  
“Didn’t have enough info and experience to bring him back.”  
“Well then let’s knock some sense into him.”  
“Or knock the sense out of him.”  
“Really?”  
“Too obvious?”  
“Way too obvious.” Glitch rushed at us swinging wildly; we backed up and thrusted forward knocking him backwards. We rushed forward to pin him and he pushed me off him as he stood back up.  
“He’s very resilient. I don’t think we can pin him down.” Alice grabbed my blade and examined it.  
“Your weapon is useless but…” She examined me up and down, “Looks like your body isn’t.”  
“What?”  
“From what I’ve seen in this world so far it seems like those mushrooms make the body much more physically fit and your body seems to be a result of about three or four of those mushrooms.”  
“So?”  
“So you’re going to knock him out with your fist once I make an opening.”  
“I could shatter my hand.”  
“Or you could end up dead.”   
“…Fair point.” She rushed forward and clashed against Glitch’s ax trying to disarm him as I waited for my opening. His moves weren’t wild which made this harder, even when he was crazy his moves weren’t wild like Alice’s were. His skill seems barbarian like which makes his mind a hindrance rather than an asset in battle. If Alice isn’t careful she’ll be overwhelmed; I watched as Glitch built up momentum increasing his speed and power and overwhelming Alice piece by piece. I pulled out my blade and rushed in front of Alice blocking the harshest blow again and watched as the blade shattered and Glitch stagger from the sudden stop. I braced myself ignoring the numbing pain running through my hand again and balled it into a fist as I struck Glitch in the face sending him backwards for a moment and then crashing into the ground. It worked, he was knocked out cold, we were still alive…and my hand is in intense pain from that punch.  
“Nice, you did it! You could have done well in Punch Out.”  
“Yeah…if my name was the Broken Fist.”  
“I think that’s Glass Joe’s back-up name in wrestling.” We laughed, it was like we were back home in her hospital room having fun and cracking jokes.  
“Hey, how did you end up here anyway?”  
“I could ask you the same question you know. Before I went to bed I saw a bright light outside my door and then a nurse came in to my room and gave me the Mario game we played earlier that day. Suddenly I’m engulfed by a light and woke up in this world, you know that light could blind someone.”  
“Another one and I might go blind.” We looked around us and watched as cheep-cheeps jumped over us most likely trying to get us but missing their mark, “Let’s move to the next flag pole and set up camp for the night.”  
“Sounds good but…who’s going to carry him?” We looked over to see the passed out Glitch, “I think we both know who’s carrying him.”  
“Yeah, you.” She gave me a stern look, “Kidding, jeez.” I grabbed Glitch and slung him over my back as we started moving. It took us a little longer than I expected but we made it to the pole and avoided the fish with slight difficulty. I also explained how I ended up here which cleared up why we didn’t end up here in the same time.  
“Well it’s good to know what’s happening; I got here and then made it to the first destroyed building. The Toad inside said that a boy with a black coat saved him and so I knew you were here and increased my pace to catch up to you. Good thing I did or you’d be cleaved in twain.”  
“You’re exaggerating and cleaved in twain? What are you, a Shakespeare play?” We talked until the sun went down and set up a fire and some sleeping bags, seems like Glitch wouldn’t wake up till morning.  
“So what’s the plan?”  
“Well it’s the same as last time, travel till we find the hero and then finish off the villain.”  
“What about the enemies? I noticed there were a few, if not all, you left behind.”  
“I’m not killing living creatures, Bowser’s men are living creatures.”   
“But how will we take out Bowser then?”  
“I’ll…come up with something.”  
“Well you’re going to need to be quick then, with me here the pace is going to be quick on our travel.” She was right, both of us could move quickly and if Glitch could move with us then it wouldn’t be long before we made it to the eighth area. Knowing me and Alice we could clear two areas a day; but first we have to wait for Glitch to wake up. Even then he doesn’t trust us, we can’t get him to travel with us if I can’t give him a reason to, “Well, I’m headed to bed, see you in the morning.” Alice turned around and went to bed as I waited for the fire to die. 

Alice being here made this easier to handle, now I had someone I could use as an example of trust to hopefully get Glitch on my side but I can’t just start out the door with her. I pulled out one of the G emblems I still had and looked at Glitch still unconscious; this would give me a good start.


	8. Chapter 8 (Castle 2)

Glitch   
My head was spinning when I woke up; it felt like I had been punched across the face by a gorilla and bear at the same time. The sun was low in the sky to the east meaning dawn had just broken about an hour ago; when I looked around I saw a small burned out fire pit and two sleeping bags with people inside. In one of them was a girl with black hair and a soft face and in the other was… SOREN!   
I looked around for my battle ax to see it was behind the girl’s sleeping bag. I quietly stepped over her sleeping bag and grabbed my weapon ready to kill the obstacle in my way. I approached Soren’s bag and looked to see he was tossing and turning in his sleep; looks like this was nightmare that would last forever.   
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” I looked over to see the girl standing up and pointing a sword at me.  
“HE IS GOING TO DIE.”   
“No, he’s not. Not if I can help it.” She gave me a piercing glare that gave me the feeling that if I even scratched him she would attack.  
“HE’S IN MY WAY. IF I DON’T KILL HIM THEN I’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO SAVE THIS WORLD.”  
“Are you kidding me? If anything he’s going to help you save this world.”  
“WHAT?”  
“He’s not some heartless person; he’s here to help this world.”  
“DON’T LIE, I KNOW HE GAVE THE GLORY TO THE ACTUAL HERO, THIS IS MY SPOTLIGHT AND HE’S NOT TAKING THAT FROM ME.”  
“There’s more to saving the world than taking the glory.”  
“BUT I’M THE HERO HERE; I WON’T LOSE IT TO HIM.”  
“You really think he would do that to you? Look up at the flag pole.” I looked up at the pole to see that my G emblem was up there.  
“SO?”  
“We crossed that bridge of fish to make it to the next pole and he tore off the old flag that was there. In the middle of the night, when he thought I was asleep, he climbed up there and stuck that on there in its place.”  
“R…really?”  
“Yep, he spent an hour climbing that thing, look at his palms.” I looked to see Soren’s palms were a light red; must have been pole burn, “He doesn’t want to beat you, steal from you or even offend you. He just wants your trust.” …  
“Why should I trust him?”  
“Has he given you reason not to?”  
“He’s been trying to convince me to give the hero role back to Mario. He’s been working against me!”  
“He hasn’t been working against you, he’s been trying to convince you but he’s stood by your side up till now. If it were up to me I would have killed you after you attacked. But he said to give you a chance, so I’m going to give you a chance.” He let me live? I looked down at Soren to see him still turning in his sleep, “We all have our own problems, I don’t know why you want to be a hero so bad and I don’t care. All I want is for us to get back home, you’re lucky that Soren is sticking his neck out for you; after everything he’s been through I sometimes find myself baffled by how nice he is.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“It’s not my story to tell, but understand this.” She approached me sticking a finger in my face and gave me a deadly glare, “All he wants to do is gain your trust and give in return and if you abuse that trust then I will PERSONALY see that you pay for it!” She stepped back leaving me stunned. It was like I was being threatened by a lion protecting their cub.  
“Why do you care about him so much?” She turned around and gave me a small smile.  
“He’s the one friend I can trust completely. I’m going to protect him no matter what because I know he would do the same for me. Maybe in his own weird way but I know he would.” After saying that she started packing up her gear up; I looked back down to see he was still tossing and turning and when I looked at his face closely I saw a look of fear plastered across it.  
“Why does he toss and turn in his sleep?”  
“Like I said earlier, everyone has their own problems, his haunt him in his sleep.” …Maybe I should give him a chance…but I can’t trust anyone but myself…there’s no one to trust. I looked back up at the flag pole; slowly putting my ax down I grabbed my gear packing everything up.

Soren  
I woke up with the sun in my eyes, it was still fairly close to the east hills; must be only about two hours in the morning…maybe three hours. I stood up to see Alice had her supplies packed and was looking over the large castle structure. I looked over at Glitch to see him sitting there with everything packed up and his weapon sitting in front of him. He seemed to be contemplating something deeply from the look on his face; he was a million miles away from the look in his eyes.   
“Hey Glitch, you okay?” When I said that he jumped slightly in surprise, he looked up at me and stared with confusion, “Something wrong?”  
“…Why?”  
“Huh?”  
“Why do you still look at me like that?  
“Like what?”  
“You look at me like I’m still worth trusting, I tried to KILL you! Doesn’t that faze you!?” That’s what has him so twisted in a knot?  
“You aren’t the first person to try to do me bodily harm that I’ve learned to trust. I once ended up with a concussion and burned hand; if it weren’t for her I would have been dead.” I replied pointing at Alice.  
“She didn’t go crazy though. Not like I did.”  
“No, maybe not the exact same way but she’s the reason I got said concussion. A hilt blow right to the head.” He gave me a baffled look.  
“After that you still trusted her? Why?”  
“I’m not perfect Glitch; I’ve made plenty of mistakes and been the enemy of plenty of others. I don’t deny that I’ve done wrong…but I don’t want to give up on people because of my own mistakes. My friendships have shown me that the defining piece to every friendship or partnership is trust. Maybe you can’t trust me know but give me a chance.” I outstretched my hand to him hoping he would take in this step to becoming closer.   
“…” He took my wrist and I pulled him up; he gave me a large toothy grin and laughed. This was a good first start. I looked over at Alice to see her looking at me, she gave me a smile and small nod; I was going to have to thank her later. I’m not sure how but I know she helped out in this.

After gathering everything together we entered the second castle and found ourselves greeted by a pit of lava a few feet from the entryway. The fact that there was lava in this castle was questionable and something to be taken up with the architect; deciding to ignore that thought we moved across the pit and under the spinning flamethrower making sure to avoid fire damage.  
“Hey Soren?” Alice tapped my shoulder catching my attention.  
“What’s up?”  
“Your coat is atrocious.” I looked down at my coat to see it was in pretty bad shape from the last time I looked at it; it was torn in the back and the shoulder from the ax attacks and the bottoms had burn marks. Must have caught on fire at some point and not noticed it.  
“Oh yeah, didn’t really notice. Last time it repaired itself when we completed a dungeon remember?”  
“Yeah but we’re not in Hyrule anymore so you need a new coat.”  
“No way, it’s awesome!”  
“The coat is torn; you can’t walk around looking like a hobo.”  
“I can just sew it back together.”  
“Can you even sew?” Crap, she caught me in my lie.  
“…Kind of…”  
“Hand over the coat!”  
“No! You’re going to destroy it!”  
“Good job figuring it out, now hand it over!” She started grabbing at my coat ripping it further until Glitch stopped her.  
“Stop! You’re just making it worse!” He suddenly pulled out a black thread and needle and grabbed my coat smoothly before I even know I had it off. Alice and I watched in amazement as his fingers moved so naturally as he sewed the holes back together; I don’t know where he learned that but I was impressed by how much he knew. He knew how to make a fire pit and how to sew together tapestry and clothing; seems like he knew survival skills, “Done!” He tossed the coat back at me and I examined it closely; I couldn’t even find the area that he worked on, it was like the holes were never there to begin with.  
“Wow, this is amazing work! Where did you learn to do this?”  
“I was in boy scouts for a few years and picked up a few skills.”  
“Don’t Girl scouts teach sewing?” Alice asked skeptical.  
“Well let’s just say for the first few weeks I…wasn’t…exactly in the right place.”  
“And they let you stay?”  
“Well when I was younger I didn’t exactly look…as manly as I do know.”   
“They mistook you for a girl?” He nodded and Alice and I just looked at each other baffled. He was at least a foot taller than us and was very physically fit; It was funny to think about…we started to chuckle…and then laugh.  
“Hey!”   
“Sorry, sorry…it’s just…hard to think about, I mean look at you know! It’s funny to think about.”  
“About what?” He gave me a glare.  
“About you being a tiny dainty girl.” Alice finished and we laughed again. After a few seconds I heard Glitch start to laugh.  
“You know I wore a skirt without questioning it for a month.” We started laughing again and everyone seemed to be having fun, it made the tension between us lessen. 

Once we were done laughing we continued on and found a conveyer platform area with a figure in the distance beyond it walking farther in; it was tall lumbering figure and it walked slowly onto the bridge. We jumped over the conveyer system and caught up to the figure as the shadow dissipated to reveal a tall cloaked figure…I knew it! It was the cloaked guy who was in charge of Lissa from Hyrule; he was the scourge of our last adventure and he was now here. I stopped everyone as he kept walking and we followed behind him quietly; I was curious in what he was doing at this area, I got the impression that he should have been at the end of the world in the eighth castle or at least the seventh castle. As he came to the end of the bridge I saw him approach a giant koopa at least three times our size…maybe two times Glitch’s size; I moved up to listen in on their conversation but stepped back as he pulled out a strangely made blade and swung it at the large creatures throat as the koopas eyes widened in horror at the obvious act of betrayal.  
“W…why?” The koopa choked out with its dying breath as it collapsed with a thud as its shell hit the bridge causing it to wobble and sending me on my back. He turned around and looked down at me with a smirk on his face.  
“I knew I would see you again.” I rolled backwards getting back on my feet and reached for my sword only to find nothing on my back; crap that’s right it broke in the fight with Glitch! Alice and Glitch caught up with me and the cloaked man snickered, “Even the girl is here, and looks like you have another compatriot. Too bad he’s coming with me eventually.”  
“Not if I can help it!” He laughed uproariously.  
“You think you can save him? I saw what went down, he almost killed you! That’s exactly what I want, that intent makes them all the stronger!” He turned to Glitch and outstretched his hand, “You want power, strength, and the chance to be a hero? Come with me boy, I can show you true strength.” He was trying to recruit Glitch right in front of me? I looked to see Glitch thinking it over in his head; he was seriously considering it!?  
“Glitch.” Alice caught his attention, “You don’t want to trust him, he doesn’t hold up in his promises.” He looked down and back stepped.  
“You can’t recruit him!” I yelled at the giant man.  
“No, I can but I think I’ll save the ace up my sleeve for later. For now, how about showing me what you’ve got two face?” Two face? What did he mean, “I would love to get a look at the person under the skin again. He was so…passionate.” Him!?  
“What do you want with him?”  
“I’m very interested in your unique circumstance. Not many others are so…split up like you.”  
“Shut up!” Don’t talk about him; it…hurts to think about him. Alice rushed forward and swung at him with her blade; he just blocked it and pushed her back as he pulled at the hole in his blade creating two knives.  
“Trick weapons sure are interesting aren’t they, almost unfair when you can use them properly.” Trick weapons, they’re from Bloodborne. How many worlds has he visited?  
“What are you doing anyway?” I asked catching his attention, “As far as I can tell you are working with Bowser; why are you killing his top men?”  
“Clever as always, what causes wars my dear boy?”   
“War…it’s caused by disputes in ethics and how someone perceives a situation and whether or not they want to do something about it.”  
“Close but so far; it’s hate and fear that causes wars. You hate others because of how they treat you or you fear their culture or power and that’s why wars spark.” So killing Bowser’s men creates fear? No…it doesn’t cause fear.  
“You’re causing hate.” Alice cut in, “You’re killing Bowser’s men to blame it as the Mushroom kingdoms retaliation, you’re turning it into a war between these two forces.”  
“Wait, it’s not already a war?” Glitch added in.  
“No, it’s an invasion; but if Bowser finds out his men are being killed by mushroom forces from this guy-” she pointed at the cloaked man, “Then it will turn into a full scale war.”  
“Precisely little miss. I was hoping that Glitch and my subordinate would be able to do this but a hitch in my plan popped up.” He looked at me with a smile; why was he smiling?  
“So you had to rethink your plan.” I interjected.  
“No matter, I must be on my way; there are still five others to take care of.” He pulled out a small green glowing gem…was that a chaos emerald, “When you can harness these things they really become useful. Sadly they only have jumper capabilities; it will get me at least a few yards ahead of you.” As I reached for him he suddenly disappeared leaving us on the bridge with the koopa body and a sense of dread of what the future might be if he succeeds.


	9. Chapter 9 (The Return)

“Dammit!” I slammed my fist into the ground angrily. This is the second time he’s corrupted a world to his own twisted goal; I had a suspicion he was behind this but to see I was right just pisses me off more than I expected.  
“Who was that guy?” Glitch’s voice tore me from my anger; he was still in the dark about this situation.  
“That was…were not sure.” Even after all our encounters we still couldn’t figure out who he was or what his end goal was in recruiting travelers, “But what we do know is that he’s dangerous, he will say whatever he wants to get you on his side.”  
“He’s done it once.” Alice interjected.  
“Twice.”  
“Twice!?”  
“Me and Glitch ran into a shapeshifter type person. I have to assume he’s working with the guy, I can’t remember any instance of a shapeshifter humanoid in this world.”  
“So…he’s our villain?” Glitch asked; I raised my eyebrow at his question.  
“Yeah?”  
“So we have to take him down?” So that’s what he’s driving at!  
“Glitch no! Trust me he’s too dangerous, me and Alice barely survived a fight with him. In all honesty…he let us live.” I watched Glitch take a step back in fear, “We should avoid him if we can, for now all we need to do is find Mario and take care of Bowser.” He gave me a shaky nod and looked over to the body of the koopa.  
“What about this?”  
“If we get to the final castle we can at least keep the blame off the Mushroom kingdom for this.” But if we were going to do that then we’re going to need to double time it to the end, “First, let’s grab some supplies from the armory at this castle and then head out.” We jumped down and found the toad at the end. When he saw us he gave us a big smile. After thanking us for saving him he led us to the nearby hidden armory and gave us free reign to look around. I grabbed two longsword off of a nearby bench of weapons and slung one around my waist and the other under my coat; it was smart to carry a back-up just in case. I looked over and saw Glitch grabbing survival supplies such as rations and lanterns and stuffing them into his belt pouch; Alice was looking over the wide range of different blades and seemed to be contemplating what to pick up, “Why not stay with the sword you’re using?” I asked her making her jump in surprise.  
“It’s balanced but I want to do more strikes instead of doing more damage.”  
“How about the rapier?” It was good for quick strikes.  
“It relies more on thrusts while I do more slashing than thrusting.” That’s a predicament.  
“How about a katana then?” She raised her eyebrow at my suggestion and then grabbed a katana off the weapon bench. She swung it around for a minute getting her bearings and then started to experiment with her unique way of fighting; when she was done she smiled and sheathed the blade slinging it on her waist.   
“Good choice.” She walked away heading to the supplies picking up different supplies. I looked over to see Glitch was waiting at the entrance.  
“Hey Glitch, do you want to switch out your weapon?” I asked and he gave me a cocky smile.  
“I’m good with my battle ax!” He motioned to the double edged ax slung over his back, it was still in fairly good condition; he must not have used it very much before. I felt Alice tap my shoulder and turned to her; she was wearing her basic white t-shirt with her green short sleeved jacket and now had a metal breastplate with small steel gauntlets, steel knee-high boots and wore a steel skirt… it didn’t look half bad on her. She handed me a few basic supplies and I placed them in my belt.   
“Why are we getting weapons? Aren’t we going to avoid killing any of Bowser’s men?”  
“We’re not only dealing with them but the guy and his shapeshifter…and possibly Lissa.”  
“Did you see her?”  
“No but we can’t rule her out, she could be farther in.” Alice gave me a nod.  
“True…but first off…” She looked me up and down, “Why aren’t wearing some form of armor?”  
“I’m wearing arm-guards.”  
“That’s not enough!” She gave me an angry look; somehow I had a knack for pissing her off, “Me and Glitch are at least wearing a few pieces of metal armor.” I looked over at Glitch and she was right; even if it was patchy he still wore more armor than I ever have…and he seemed to grab a red jacket when I wasn’t looking, “Come with me!” She grabbed me by the back of my collar and dragged me over to the armor area and started looking over pieces of armor I could wear. It was like I was shopping with my mom for new clothes.

After half an hour I was now equipped with shoulder guards and a breastplate as well as steel boots and knee guards; she let me keep the arm guards but they were now steel and the inside of my black jacket now had a light layer of chain-mail. Luckily with my new mushroom strength it didn’t weigh me down and I added a layer of cotton so the metal wouldn’t cause any noise as I moved.  
“Happy?” I asked giving Alice a glare.  
“Very.” She replied proudly making me laugh.  
“Can we get moving?” Glitch asked tapping an imaginary watch. We wasted a lot of time on this so we better get moving. 

We moved out quickly into the third area and looked out to see it was covered in storm clouds and littered with enemies all over the area. We kept to the high areas and sped through the area grabbing any of the mushrooms we could find whether they were 1-ups or power mushrooms. With our united work we made it to the end quickly enough and tore the flag off of its pole as Glitch attached his own symbol. We didn’t waste any time and kept up with our pace into the next area; when I looked out I saw as it was filled with Koppas and Goombas with no upper platforms for us to run across.  
“Why are there so many troops this early in?” Alice asked annoyed.  
“We’re getting closer to the leader. The troops are becoming more frequent.” Glitch pointed out.  
“But were not even half way there. This seems extreme for this early in.” She was right, this was too early for this many troops…or maybe there are tougher troops farther in.  
“These troops can be counted as scouts. When we get farther in I’m guessing we’ll run into more experienced troops.”  
“Yeah, like hammer bros, bullet bills, buzzy beetles, lakitus and spinies.” Glitch said almost naturally.  
“Kind of an expert at this game huh?” I said nudging him.  
“This game is my bread and butter. It’s the only game I play.” He replied with a smile…only game?  
“You don’t play any other game?” I watched his smile fade slowly and he looked down.  
“…Yeah…let’s just keep moving.” He started moving ahead of us and Alice and I looked at each other; we both know what that meant. That fact was connected to his main problem; we caught up with him and we jumped over the enemies dodging them as they rammed at us and swooped down to get to us. Once we made it through we looked up to get an idea of what time in the day it was. The sky was too covered in storm clouds for us to get an idea of what time in the day it was; without the sun we couldn’t even tell if it was midday or near dusk, “If we’re going to get an idea of what time to stop we’re going to need to get to the next area. The skies will be clear enough for us to tell the suns position.” If that was what we needed to do then we had better keep moving. 

We moved into the next area and as we looked out I felt something wet hit my face, it was starting to rain; we bundled up our collective coats and took a better look at the area. It was a multi-platform area with only a few koopas in the area; they didn’t seem much for battle as they withdrew into their shells to avoid the rain, this was going to be easy. As we approached the first platform we watched as a fog began to pool into the area from out in the distance; maybe this wasn’t going to be so easy. We moved as fast as we could to avoid being consumed by the fog, it wouldn’t be ideal to try jumping from platform to platform without being able to see the next platform. As we jumped onto the next platform we moved over a koopa and as I moved over it I felt something pull at my leg and I fell to the ground as Alice and Glitch kept moving. When I looked down I saw the koopa deform into a black mass and reform into the slick haired boy I met before.  
“You!” I stood up and pulled out my sword as he looked at me calmly.  
“That wouldn’t be smart here.” He waved his finger at me and I looked around at my surroundings; moving from side to side was definitely out of the question, “At least, not for you.” He suddenly re-formed into a gryphon and then back laughing.  
“What do you want?”  
“I figure it would have been easy to figure out by now, I want you dead and the boy on our side. Basic stuff really.” He spoke so calmly it almost pissed me off.  
“You won’t have any luck with that here you know. I mean, it’s just you and me here.”  
“You think I didn’t plan this?” His eyes narrowed as he looked at me, “Convincing the dolt would be simple but with you around I can’t count on him not betraying us. In case you haven’t noticed our main enemy in our plans is trust. When there is trust between people then they become harder to control, we don’t need partners we need dogs.” He spoke so meticulously, as though he had everything in place. There was no hint of hesitation or uncontrollable emotion in his voice like with Lissa, “As long as he even has the smallest hint of trust for you then you stand as a roadblock to our plans.”  
“Why do you need Glitch?” He just laughed at me when I said that.  
“We don’t need him, he’s just a smaller piece of a larger puzzle and like any piece to a puzzle there are hundreds more to be found to take its place.” He looked at me and gave me an intense glare that made my body hair stand on end, “But you set us back by stopping our recruiting and we don’t want to see that again.” He pulled a short sword out of his arm and rushed at me. I blocked his attack and pushed him back as he slid back smoothly as though the push did nothing, “The boss will probably reprimand me for killing you but I think it’ll serve us well in the long run.” He rushed at me again swinging wildly as I blocked his hits, he kept striking at my sword causing me to slid back slightly; I couldn’t retaliate with his quick blows continuing to barrage me. I felt my back foot slide off and felt myself tumble backwards off of the platform, I quickly grabbed the ledge and tried lifting myself up with all my strength. Pull-ups were never my strong suit but I had a chance! I pulled myself up and swung at his feet causing him to back step giving me enough room to stand, “He said you wouldn’t be easy to kill.”  
“Why did you impersonate Mario? It doesn’t make any sense to impersonate the hero and keep heading to your end goal.”  
“You miss the big part Soren. Tell me, what could you gain from impersonating someone? And to clarify, money and power are off the table.” Reasons to impersonate someone beyond power and money…  
“You have the trust of everyone who trusts that person and you can control their credibility.”  
“Same thing in this case but you are correct. I impersonated the plumber to gain the trust of those around him and crush it into a pulp.” But if the rumors I’ve heard are true then…  
“You’ve been impersonating Mario since before this all started!?”  
“That’s right. I brought the plumbers world crumbling around him by being him, I raised the rumors you’ve heard and harassed the goombas to bring this war.” He caused all this?  
“Why would you do that!? What could you gain from creating a war?”  
“This isn’t a war yet, we still have a bit before it becomes a war but I’ve said too much already.” He pulled out a second short sword in his other hand and rushed at me swinging both weapons causing me to work double time as I dodged and blocked in a rapid succession. When I dodged another move I swiftly kicked him in the side sending him to the ground, he laughed again as he stood, “They weren’t wrong, you’re skilled but I have yet to see your strength.” As he came at me again I sent my brain into overdrive and looked for an opening to disarm him of one of his swords. As he thrusted I moved out of the way of the blow by twirling to the side on one foot and grabbed his wrist digging into it with my nails making him drop the sword. I kicked the blade off the platform watching it disappear into the fog; when I looked back over I saw him look at me in disbelief, “Not what I was expecting here, but that’s what back up is for.” He snapped his fingers and I watched as a figure flew in on wings towards our destination, when it approached I saw a red headed woman flying with bat wings on her back, it was Lissa!

When she landed she looked at me and gave a surprised gasp and looked at the boy.  
“Damien you’re fighting him!?” So his name is Damien.  
“You should have known that Lissa.”  
“I expected a different traveler…not Soren.” She looked at me sadly, “I…I can’t fight him.”  
“You’re going to let this deal end then. We all have a reason for being here, if you don’t fight then that deal is void.” I saw her eyes widen in fear and she shed a single tear.  
“…okay…” I watched as she widened her hands and out of thin air she summoned two large knives and gripped them, “I’m sorry Soren, but this is where you will die!” She rushed at me to quickly to dodge and sliced me along the chest being stopped by the breastplate, going to have to thank Alice for that. I kicked her backwards causing her to skid and then extend her wings and fly at me slicing at me; luckily I was expecting that and moved to avoid most of her hits getting sliced along the face and any other exposed areas. When she finally stopped I stood back panting and felt someone on my left prompting me to block finding Damien striking at me with his short sword; it was two on one and the odds were against me with Lissa’s two knives and Damien’s quick short sword. Time to take some risks!

I moved back and jumped off the platform into open air hoping that there was another platform for me to land on; luckily I landed on another one and kept running forward towards whatever was next. I could hear as Damien and Lissa chased after me with Damien’s footsteps being heard in the distance as well as Lissa’s wing beats. As I landed on the next platform I didn’t hear the crunch of grass but the thud of brick and found myself standing in front of the third castle even if I couldn’t see it, I ran up the stairs and jumped down to see Alice and Glitch looking at me with surprise and then relief.  
“What happened to you!? We were worried sick!”  
“Yeah, we made it over the pole and I saw my flag next to the Bowser flag meaning you hadn’t torn it off. By that point we had lost track of you.” I looked up to see Glitch’s and Bowser’s flag waving side by side.  
“Wait, you’re covered in cuts.” Alice grabbed my face and looked at the cut lines caused by Lissa, “These are weapon cuts!”  
“Did you run into the cloaked guy?” Glitch asked with worry in his voice.  
“No, I ran into the black haired guy Damien and Lissa.”  
“She’s here!?” Alice asked shocked and angry.  
“Yeah, I was fighting them when I decided to run and catch up to you guys.” She gave a sigh and let go of my face.  
“That was smart at least.”  
“We don’t have time to waste!” They looked at me confused, “If they’re behind us then that means that the cloaked man is just ahead.” They gave a surprised look coming to the realization and we moved into the castle rushing past any obstacles to get to the bridge.

When we made it to the end we saw as the cloaked man was raising a yellow fist over the giant buzzy beetle. As we rushed to stop him the giant fist crushed the shell of the creature and flattened it causing the blood of it to spray out in a gruesome fashion. He slid his hand across the remains pushing it into the lava and turned to us washing the blood of the creatures off his face.  
“I’m afraid you’re too late again.” Dammit! We were to late again! Why can’t we stop him! I rushed forward to take a slice at him and he extended his gigantic hand swatting me backwards, “Gutsman really had a lot of strength, how he lost to Megaman is beyond me.” Megaman; another power he has, it was insane to see the plethora of power he attained from so many games. Alice and Glitch helped me up and pulled out their respective weapons, “Three on one won’t help you anymore than you think it will.” He gave us a deadly look and I felt the aura he exuded. It was over powering and almost made me fall to my knees. I looked behind us to see Lissa and Damien had caught up and they were blocking the other end of the bridge. We weren’t outnumbered but we were out powered with the boss here and I don’t think he was going to sit this fight out.


	10. Chapter 10 (Hero?)

Damien rushed at me swinging his short swords across my torso; I stepped backwards and swung my longsword prompting him to backflip and switch with Lissa, she dashed forward with a thrust too quick for me to block. Alice jumped in front knocking the knives out of Lissa’s hand and kicked her back; she extended her wings and flew at us as Alice and I stopped her assault forward with our blades making a combined block. I looked over at Glitch who was facing off against Damien and seemed to be holding his own decently; he swung his ax with enough strength to knock Damien’s weapons off base but not out of his hands, the good news was Damien couldn’t recover fast enough to retaliate.  
“Soren, pay attention!” Alice brought me back to our current battle as Lissa extended her nails to make blade like claws and swiped at us with a blinding speed…but she seemed to be slowing down and I could see her eyes become less malicious with each second. She didn’t want to fight us, I could see that but I couldn’t see the why; the last time we saw each other I had just saved her from the collapsing dungeon and she seemed to be in question of something. I couldn’t see what was wrong with her though, “Soren!” I was pulled from my thoughts to see Lissa had grabbed me and pinned me to the floor. As I looked into her eyes I watched as she went into shock, anger, fear and then sadness; the next second I watched her begin to cry and then felt her tears touch my face; I don’t know what was eating her but it was hurting…I felt sorry for her.  
“Enough.” We looked over and the cloaked man had risen his hands as they emitted a weird light blue glow; to the right I saw Glitch and Damien had been frozen in place with Glitch raising his weapon to swing it down while Damien had gone for the lower slash, “This seemed to go a little different than I intended.” Lissa got off me and stood there looking away as the cloaked man walked over, “You’re turmoil seems to be interfering young succubus.” She continued to look away as he passed her heading towards Damien and Glitch, “And your impulsiveness seems to be clouding your judgment shapeshifter.” He dropped his hand and both Glitch and Damien back stepped away from each other.  
“Looks like I’ll have to finish this another time.” He gave a smirk and Glitch gave him an angry look.  
“Soren, are you okay?” Alice helped me up and I looked over at Lissa to see she was wiping the tears out of her eyes; as I approached her I felt Alice grab my shoulder to stop me, “She’s a succubus Soren, you can’t trust her.” I looked back to see she was refusing to look me in the eye even as she kept making glances.  
“…I’ll take that chance.” I approached her and she nervously backed up, “Lissa is everything alright?” She gave me a look of shock.  
“Are…are you being serious.”  
“Yeah, I wouldn’t ask it otherwise.” I watched as she reached behind her back and I heard as Alice unsheathed her katana behind me. I stopped her and saw Lissa pull out a small handkerchief and wipe her eyes with it.  
“…Hey can I ask you a question?”  
“Go ahead.” I gave her a patient smile; she looked me in the eyes and took a deep breath.  
“…You see-”  
“We’re out of here Lissa.” We looked over to see the robed boss had opened some kind of portal and motioned Lissa over to him; this might be my chance, before I could even begin to move I felt my body become restrained in an instant, “Sorry but I know what you’re thinking. I’ll be back to humor you later but for now I have some work to do with these two. Consider this your chance to pull ahead.” I watched as Lissa walked through the portal as Damien and the boss followed; before it closed I saw the boss look back with a wicked smirk.

As I stood there stunned I felt relieved that we had survived the encounter with them and pissed that I couldn’t find out what was wrong with Lissa; she didn’t seem twisted, at least not as much as Damien or their boss.   
“I would have won!” Glitch blurted out angrily as he tapped his foot angrily.  
“What was that about?” Alice asked me as she got close to my face, she seemed pissed.  
“What was what about?”  
“Why did you talk with her, she’s our enemy; you had a chance to recollect and plan while she was distressed.”  
“I don’t know why I just felt I had to talk to her, something was wrong. I couldn’t just leave her to grieve.” She sighed and backed up.  
“I understand that but you seemed to trust her not to pull a weapon on you. She could have been faking those emotions.” She was right, faking emotions were succubae trade and craft.  
“Somehow…this felt different, I just knew those emotions were real.”  
“No logical reason for it?”  
“…No just a feeling.” She giggled and gave me a flick on my forehead.  
“I suppose that’s just like you but stop making me worry.”  
“Not sure I can promise you that.  
“…I know.” We looked around at what was left of the bridge. The wood had cracked and broken from the missed blows of weaponry leaving only a few steps left to actually walk on and even those were flimsy.  
“We’d better be careful.” Glitch said taking slow steps across the bridge, “One wrong step and we’re toast.” More like burnt ashes. We made it across fairly simply making sure to keep next to the ropes of the bridge to give us something to hold onto in case we fall; once we were across Glitch gave a relieved sigh and searched out at the lower area as we approached his spot, “Guys, you might want to see this.” Once we made it we looked out to see that the lower area was strewn in weaponry of different quality and variety; there was a big fight here, that much could be interpreted. Some of the most notable weaponry were hammers and knife like swords giving me the feeling that a fight between a group of toads and Bowser’s men. There were no bodies which meant that the toads were taken hostage…wait, what’s that? Out of the corner of my eye I saw something bright green and jumped down to examine it. I saw it was a bright green hat with a white circle in the center with a green ‘L’ in the center of the circle; this was Luigi’s hat!  
“Luigi? This is his hat?” Alice said over my shoulder making me jump.  
“So he was here?” Glitch asked observing the hat from behind me.  
“I think so, they must have captured him.”  
“Mario to.” Alice said catching our attention; she bent down and picked up an identical hat that was red with an ‘M’ in the center. So our plumber hero was being held captive, this gave us a better idea of where he might be; we still have five more castles to check in that case.  
“Come on, let’s keep moving. We have the lead and I don’t intend to waste it!” Glitch said psyching himself up as he ran out the nearby exit. He was excited to get moving but he seemed more pumped than he was before, something was definitely different but I couldn’t put my finger on the pulse. 

We moved out and looked out at the fourth area we had to pass through to get to the next castle. As I looked out I could notice the sun setting in the background, it would be night in a few hours; we could make it to the next area if we hurried and with our situation right now we could definitely make it. I looked back at the group to see Alice was deep in thought; probably still thinking about our recent scuffle with Lissa. Glitch seemed to be shadow boxing for some reason, he seemed to be practicing his skills but I couldn’t think of why. I recollected them and we started moving across the map as fast as we could; I jumped over the piranha plants avoiding their fireballs and kept dashing grabbing what mushrooms and 1ups I could collect. It seemed like the area was exclusively a piranha plant area; even as I ran I saw plant vines lining the ground as we ran…something was wrong here, I’ve seen this before! I stopped quickly making Alice and Glitch stop and turned around to see the vines begin to wiggle and squirm.  
“What’s happening?” Alice asked me.  
“I know this!” Glitch said becoming alert. I narrowed my eyes pulling out my sword as a giant piranha plant rose from the pit; I get the feeling that they knew about this creature, that’s why he gave us that head start! I watched as it slowly approached us snapping its monstrous jaws as it came at us.   
“Get ready, here it comes!” Alice and Glitch pulled out their weapons and stood ready to fight.

I back stepped as the creature crashed into the ground trying to bite into me; I swung my longsword slicing across its head as it recoiled in pain. I watched as the wound I left refused leaving no visible damage to the creature; this thing had some serious regenerative powers on its hands, I had to go for the root. I looked at where its root was to see it was covering its self in other minor vines and even then I saw the main root was too thick to cut with my blade.  
“Damn! This thing is tough!” I looked over to see Alice had been cut up by its thorns while Glitch was slicing at the sharp vines as they came at them. Cutting this thing apart only made it reform, we were going to need something that keeps hurting…like fire! I backed up and began drawing a rune of fire as fast as I could; once I finished I fired the spell outstretching my hand to push it forward. The only thing that came out was a small lighter flame; without a channel or more power my magic abilities were useless!  
“What are you doing?” Alice asked as they continued to push back the vines. I quickly dodged the attack coming from the head before I answered.  
“If we can do some fire damage we might be able to burn it and keep it from regenerating. Problem is my magic is too weak to channel properly.”  
“Try this!” Glitch reached into his pouch and pulled out a fire flower tossing it to me the next second, “That should increase your power with fire for a few minutes!” I shoved the fire flower in my mouth cringing the next second at the spicy texture of the flower as I felt my eyes start to water up; I powered through and swallowed the jalapeno flavored plant and felt my body start to heat up quickly. The heat didn’t burn though, it felt comforting and welcoming as I stood there soaking it in; I began to draw the rune feeling my hand heat up as I started drawing, the fire magic was coursing through my body into my hand. Before I could finish I saw my hand ignite with powerful fire and stopped, the effects were so potent the fire spell was instantaneous! I outstretched my hand and channeled the fire power in my palm and watched as it shot at the vines assaulting my team; once it came in contact with the vines I saw the fire spread down the vines turning them to ash. The flame snaked up and consumed the protective layer of vines around the main tether to life.  
“Glitch, you’re up!” I motioned to the main vine and Glitch dashed forward and swung at the vine with all his might tearing through the first three layers but wasn’t able to make it through the whole thing. This thing had multiple layers to its main vine; it was much more powerful than we thought! Glitch stood there trying to pull his ax out with all his might, the piranha plant reeled its head back and I saw flames form from its mouth; it was going to shoot a fireball! I rushed forward and pushed Glitch out of the radius and felt the flames pour on me.  
“Soren!” Alice yelled worried, it was to be expected considering I was currently being covered in flames but I couldn’t feel them; there seemed to be a cover that protected my body from damage. The fire flower must have given me extra fire protection. When the onslaught was over a shook of the pressing feeling on my body and motioned for Glitch to come back over. We pulled at the ax and dislodged it from the creature with all our force.  
“Are you crazy!?” Glitch yelled obviously surprised.  
“You sound like Alice, let me try something.” I touched the ax blade with my hand and felt the warmth leave my body as I watched the flames dance on the blade of the ax, “Go for it!” I backed up and watched as Glitch reeled back with all his strength and swung across the vine cutting through all layers with ease as the fire burned away each layer of the center vine. 

The piranha plant wailed as it was consumed by the zipping flames of the fire until all that was left was the burnt ashes of the plant we just destroyed. We all let out a collective sigh of relief as we sat down exhausted from the fight we just had; this was technically the first boss fight we had in this world and I got the feeling it wouldn’t be the last, now that we reached the halfway point there were going to be more troops and even tougher troops coming at us. As I contemplated our future fights I felt a steel fist hit my head.  
“Moron!” I turned around and Alice was standing over me with a balled fist in her gauntlet as Glitch giving me a glare, “How many times are you going to jump in front of burning flames!?”  
“You would have been burnt to a crisp!” Glitch added in, “And I don’t think we can shove a 1-up down the throat of a pile of bones and ash!”  
“I had a fire flower so I was fine.” I replied hopping to disperse their anger…in retrospect I guess that was the wrong thing to say. I felt Alice grab me by the collar of my shirt and lift me up.  
“We didn’t know the fire flower did that you idiot! How many times are you going to make me worry about whether or not you’ll end up dead because of some crazy stunt!?”  
“I had to save Glitch.”  
“Why?” We both turned to Glitch who asked the question as he gave me an angry yet confused look, “Why did you save me, I tried to kill you yesterday! Why would you sacrifice your life for your murderer?”  
“Actually it was attempted murder and why not?” He went silent for a minute at what I had just said; it was like I had said something crazy.  
“Didn’t you hear me? I tried to KILL you! I doesn’t make sense to just treat me like a valued member when I’ve caused you harm.”  
…  
“Why not?” He looked me in the eye with a surprised look, the anger gone from his face, “You are a valued teammate, no matter what the case I see you as someone to trust. We all make mistakes Glitch but dwelling on those mistakes is no way to establish trust. I want to trust you and gain your trust in return; if I show the tiniest hint of distrust then I’m failing myself and you. I’m not going to let the past effect my future anymore, I’m going to give it my all when it comes to our team work on and off the battle field.” I approached him and put a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t question why I want to save you, you’re worth saving because you’re a part of this team.” I gave him a smile and he just stood there stunned at what I said. I looked back at Alice and she gave me a smile as she rolled her eyes at me.

The rest of the travel to the flag pole was done in silence as Glitch shuffled behind me and Alice walked next to me.  
“Do you have a thing for giving speeches?” Alice asked as she put her hands behind her head.  
“Why do you ask?”  
“Seems to me you like giving people a heartfelt talk that’s long winded.”  
“Didn’t I give you a speech to?”  
“You’re just proving my point.”  
“We’re friends now right? That means it was worth doing if we’re friends now.” She giggled and looked back at Glitch contemplating something.  
“That’s true; whatever you do it seems to work. Just don’t go overboard, okay?”  
“Okay.” We made it to the flag pole and since Glitch was still in a stunned state I grabbed one of the extra flags and jumped onto the pole. I tore the Bowser emblem off and patched on Glitch’s flag as Glitch just looked up at me as I struggled to put it on, it was harder than it looked. After that we set up camp and lit a fire using the skills I observed Glitch using; I felt that I did a good job.  
“That’s a crappy fire pit.” Alice said crushing my illusion of competence. We all sat around it and I looked over at Glitch to see him just staring at the pit poking the fire with a stick; he seemed to be depressed about something but I couldn’t pin it.  
“Hey Glitch?” I pulled him from his thoughts as he looked at me, “Why were you so intent on training after that fight?”  
“You see…after that fight I felt like I had to get stronger to fight Damien. I felt like a hero with a rival and I had to get stronger to beat him and stand on top.” I watched as he broke the stick in half throwing it into the roaring fire, “I felt like I had a goal to achieve beyond fighting Bowser and being the saver of the mushroom kingdom. It felt good for a little bit but then I took my chances against the piranha plant and couldn’t even cut it apart.”  
“That’s just because it was thicker than we thought.” He shook his head.  
“It wasn’t just that, maybe we had trouble but I was expecting that, what I didn’t expect was you jumping in to save me. When that blast was coming at me I saw my life flash before my eyes and I felt…I felt like I could have gone out there and it would have been fine. Nobody would have cared and my life would have just blinked out without anyone caring; it wasn’t a heroes death but I felt like it was how I was going to go out, with nobody caring about me and me not accomplishing anything…like everyone said I would go out.” He spoke so naturally about his own death that I could tell this was not the first time he thought about it, “Then, you saved me and as you were engulfed in flame I felt that doubt being replaced with confusion. There have been times were I was almost hit by a car and as it sped at me I watched as people just looked at me; people who knew me just looked at me as though I was getting what was coming to me. The car stopped before it hit me and they just continued walking, as though it didn’t even happen.” He stopped and took a deep breath, “The fact that you were willing to give up your life to save me was unconceivable to me it felt odd. Then there was the feeling I got from just looking at you about to die; I don’t know why but I felt an overwhelming sense of loss looking at you, it wasn’t just me either, I saw it on Alice’s face.” I looked over at Alice and she looked away shyly, “When I asked you why, you said I was valued and that was a word that I had never heard before. I realized that when it comes to us you’re more of a hero than I am.” What?  
“What do you mean?”  
“You not only saved me but you gave me a reason to why I was worth it. You made me feel like I had validation in this life, you’re a hero. You selflessly gave yourself to save me and you treat me with respect even after what I’ve done; only a hero would do that.” He spoke honestly; he meant everything he said and I could tell it was hard for him to admit, “I want to be that but I’m scared, how can people look at someone who never had any value and see a hero. One look at you and I felt there was more to you than what I saw, it hurt to see what you were in that moment because it’s what I want to be and I can’t.”  
“You don’t want to be.” I replied.  
“What?”  
“Trust me when I say that what you saw in me is not something of a hero; I’m not a hero, I’m just another traveler like you and Alice. If anything, you two have more to you than me.” When I looked at Alice she gave me a worried look; she knew what I was talking about…him, “Besides, you’re my teammate, I’m not going to just disown you because of who you are; there’s always more beneath the face and if I don’t trust you than I’ll never get to know you. I want to be able to trust you and I won’t let anything change that, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a hundred more times if I have to.” Glitch went silent after that, he spent the rest of the time around that fire locked up in his head thinking. I put out the fire after an hour and we all went to sleep with the events of today still reeling in our head; barriers were breaking, things were becoming complicated and truths would eventually have to come out…from both sides.


	11. Chapter 11 (Rivalry)

Getting an early start on the day we packed up early and shipped out eager to get through to the next castle before the other group had time to re-group and take out more of Bowser’s castle holders…that doesn’t sound like the right way to say that…whatever. I scoped out the next section of land to pass through and saw another bottomless hole meaning that we had to pass through the sewers.  
“No way, uh uh, not happening.” Alice said defiantly.  
“We have to; it’s the only way through.” I retorted trying to convince her.  
“I’m wearing a skirt! There is no way I’m wadding through waist deep water without something that will keep me from flooding the lower end of my body.” …ew.  
“This is why you should have worn sport shorts…wait are you only wearing-”  
“Finish that sentence and it will be the last word you say!”  
“Great last word to say.” Glitch added in chuckling.  
“This isn’t funny Glitch!” Alice yelled; she was starting to get pissed, how should we do this?  
“Hang on…let me think.” I sat down to try to remember some of the spells I read in the spell book from Hyrule. It was full of useful spells that had a lot of uses but I was only able to skim through parts of it and remember only a few motions… there was a fire spell, sleep spell, bubble spell…maybe that would work? I stood up and did the motion that I remembered trying to get it right; when I finished a poof of smoke erupted from my fingers.  
“What did you-” When the smoke cleared Alice was passed out on the floor…wrong spell.

Deciding on who should carry Alice with a fair and civil game of rock-paper-scissors I grabbed Alice lifting her on my back and we moved down the pipe into the sewers being consumed by the darkness and the feeling of sewer ‘water’ filling our boots. Creating a makeshift torch out of a stick and some left over rags we had a decent source of light to use and looked out at the spread of area in front of us. With this light I could get a good look at the goombas in the sewer; they were a weird murky blue color…reminded me of the gloombas from paper Mario except for their feet which were just a darker blue of their body. We quickly moved around any of the enemies we came across making sure not to get their attention and jumped across to platforms a quietly as we could; it was hard to jump and move with Alice on my back but we were able to make it to the end of the sewer without arousing anything except the piranha plants which seemed on edge since we took out the big one.   
“Is she awake yet?” Glitch asked as we climbed up the pipe out of the sewer; I looked at Alice on my back to see she was sleeping peacefully with a smile on her face; she gave a small cute giggle.  
“Still passed out.” We entered the sunlight moving toward the flag pole in the distance; we jumped down and I placed Alice down helping Glitch raise his flag on the pole, “Why do you put these flags up?”  
“Being a hero means having your mark to leave on the world and this is mine!” I had to admit that it was a good symbol, it was a red G with a yellow, green and blue circle surrounding it with two axes slung behind the G both intricately sewn with the tiniest detail being shown. Finishing up we jumped down and dusted ourselves off with a feeling of accomplishment. I took this time to look over the next sub-section and saw what looked like a spread of giant fungus flat mushrooms and girder platforms, “Hey Soren!” I looked back and Glitch was standing next to Alice waving for me to come over, “How long do you think she’ll be out for?” I approached them and looked at Alice intently to check for signs of movements or disruption. She didn’t even twitch and just kept smiling as she slept; she wasn’t waking up for a good few hours; damn it, I should have studied that book more!  
“We’ve got about…six to seven hours or more of her being knocked out, I can keep carrying her but that means you’re going to have to fight any fights solo till either I can put her down or she wakes up.” I saw a spark of joy light up in Glitches eyes as I said that, it was like it was Christmas in his head.  
“Leave it to me! I can take on anything that tries to attack us!” He did a few poses excited to prove himself and grow stronger, seems like he really wanted to do this; it was kind of funny to see him so excited about this. We jumped from mushroom to mushroom avoiding para-koopas and koopa-troopas making sure to grab any stray mushrooms that weren’t platform sized and stuffing them into my belt.  
“Hey Glitch?” I asked as we moved through the area.  
“What’s up?”  
“Why do you use an ax for a weapon?”  
“What’s with the weird question?”  
“Just curious? Seemed like conversation worthy.”  
“Right now?”  
“What other time than travel time?”  
“One wrong step and we die!” We looked ahead of us to see a para-troopa race at us full force forcing us to duck under it as they flew past us, “See!”  
“Fair enough.” We jumped as fast as we could across the mushroom patch making sure to keep focus to avoid any unnecessary collisions with flying turtles the size of bowling balls. Landing on the solid brick ground we moved to the flagpole taking care of our usual business with it; I checked on Alice again but there didn’t seem to be any indication that she would wake up.  
“You put her to sleep with a spell; can’t you wake her up with one?”  
“Spells are magical; you can’t just have one spell that cancels another one out. It wouldn’t make any sense.”  
“Please, they pulled that crap all the time in Harry Potter!” Sometimes I hate when these guys use reason to trump me…mostly because I can’t retort but still.   
“Even so, I don’t know the correct spell to use or the motion so we’re stuck with an unconscious Alice until she wakes up.” We both gave a sigh.  
“So rock-paper-scissors?”  
“Yeah.”…damn it, how do I suck at this game!

We entered the castle feeling the familiar air of hostility that accompanied the stone walls as I pushed Alice up so she didn’t slide down my back; holding Alice felt foreign, if she were awake she would be beating me to a pink pulp and then into dust…please don’t wake up. Like the last few castles it was devoid of any enemies except for one piranha plant that seemed to be focused on shooting us from a distance rather than engaging us up close meaning we could move around it to the bridge. Before we approached the bridge I took a long whiff of the air…I was relieved to find the smell of death absent from the air; we jumped up to see a giant red spiny on the bridge looking out at us.  
“Halt!” It yelled at us and started to approach us slowly with a skeptical look on its small face. This creature had button eyes and a small mouth which seemed out of place on its above average body, “You are in the land of the mushroom kingdom which is currently being overthrown by our ruler Bowser. If you are a member of the mushroom kingdom I must take you into custody and if you are a new traveler to these lands I must ask you either leave or join our army.” …this was the most civil person I have EVER come across and it makes me so happy to come across someone from Bowser’s side ready to talk. I noticed Glitch start to pull out his ax and stopped him before the spiny noticed anything.  
“Look, we are travelers who have passed through four castles to bring you a message. Someone is killing your generals.” The spiny gave me a skeptical look and laughed.  
“Our generals are too tough for someone to take out; whatever you are trying to do it will not work on me.” He wasn’t convinced, not surprising but I still needed some kind of proof.  
“How would I have gotten this far if they weren’t gone and even if I joined your side then wouldn’t you have heard about it from someone?” I saw his face go into deep contemplation and then shock.  
“Did you take them out!?” He was accusing me?  
“If I had then why would I tell you?” He gave a sigh.  
“Look, I don’t know if you’re right or not but this news should go to Bowser if you are, I will send a scout to find out if you are right and in the meantime I will let you pass to take this news to Bowser, if this is true then the Mushroom kingdom is more violent than we believed.”  
“No it wasn’t them!” Glitch cut in, “Two other travelers are doing this!” That’s right!  
“Hang on, can you answer a few questions for me mr.?”   
“Call me spike.” The spiny replied. This was my chance to get answers on what the others were doing before we got here; I just have to ask the right questions.

“How long has this invasion been going on?”  
“The main attack started about four days ago and we made it to the main castle only yesterday, we’ve been working on convincing the princess to sign a treaty to hand over her land since then.” …  
“Have there been any casualties taken from the Mushroom Kingdom?”  
“We have not killed any citizens intentionally, we want a peaceful end to this without the need for violence and so we have only imprisoned them in order to avoid unnecessary complication.” Bowser seems to be more the diplomat then the tyrant, it would make sense; nobody follows a tyrant into a battle with the spirit I’ve seen these troops have.  
“What started this whole thing?”  
“From what I heard it seems like the goombas approached us complaining about how they were being treated in the Mushroom kingdom. They wanted our help in creating a better world for them and so we decided to mount an attack for their rights.” That’s why the goombas left the kingdom, to bring an army back…something big had to prompt them to retaliate like this though, I wasn’t going to find out from Spike though, I would need to talk to a goomba to get that story. Now the big question.  
“How long has the traveler in your army been here?”  
“The traveler? Oh, the big one in the giant body cloak. He’s been with us for about two months and from what I heard he was the driving force in the attack, before him we never had the piranha plants or any of the bullet bill technology.” He introduced piranha plants and bullet bills to this world!? Weren’t they already a part of this world? I felt Glitch tap my shoulder and turned to him.  
“The massive piranha plants and more mobile versions might be because of him. He just introduced something stronger than before.” That made sense; they seemed much different from what I remember.  
“After that he brought some allies with him on the day of the attack and acted as the first assault.” So he destroyed the first castle! What could they gain from bloodshed though, Bowser doesn’t want it and I doubt the Mushroom kingdom would be keen towards a war meaning that both sides are on equal ground on this matter. Whatever caused this war wasn’t just a low flame, it must have been a roaring fire and I have a feeling that something outside of this world caused this problem. I just had to get a few more pieces to finish the puzzle.   
“Thank you for answering my questions.” I turned to Glitch, “We should head to Bowser as fast as we can.” He gave me a nod and we walked past Spike onto our next destination, “Don’t trust any travelers that are part of your army, avoid them at all costs.” Spike gave me a nod as we left the castle.

“What now?” Glitch asked as we walked.  
“Now we have to get to Bowser, we have one of his men who we were able to convince meaning we have a piece of evidence we can use against the cloaked man’s plan to blame the Mushroom kingdom. With our warning he will stay alive and we can turn Bowser against the other group and avoid a full scale war.”  
“You don’t think that they’ll go after Spike?”  
“The problem was that the generals let their guards down because they saw an ally, he’ll keep his guard up with our warning.”  
“You’re a sly one you know that?” He said with a cocky grin.  
“All collective reasoning Glitch.” I retorted, “So you ready to tell me why you use an ax?”  
“Fine.” He rolled his eyes as he said that, “Most people would prefer speed over strength like you and sheep brain on your back.” He pointed to Alice who was sound asleep on my back, “But I always found it much more interesting to fight with strength than speed because after one of my hits you won’t be getting back up. Trust me.”  
“You underestimate me.”  
“We tried this before didn’t we?”  
“I’ll fight back this time.”  
“Still won’t help.” I stopped and gave him a cocky grin.  
“Try me.” He returned the grin and we shook hands.  
“After this adventure is over, you’re on!” This was going to be interesting, I was interested to see what he could do in a one on one fight and I was going to get that chance. This even helped us establish a stronger bond which made it a win-win situation for both of us; this was working great.  
“I’d like to see that fight go down.” I stiffened my back feeling Alice move, “Sounds like fun.” I looked on my back to see Alice had woken up and was giving us a smile, she seemed okay; then she looked at me with a wicked grin and I felt my skin crawl, “Oh and Soren, I know you were being nice and carrying me but-” She leaned in and glared at me as I felt a coldness surround me, “Get you hand off my ass before I shove my foot up yours!” In retrospect…I was lucky I got a warning.


	12. Chapter 12 (Stars in the Night)

I surveyed the fifth area ahead of us getting and idea of how long it would take us to get through; the sun was in the middle of the sky giving us the rest of the afternoon to travel and if we moved fast enough we might be able to make it to the sixth area by sundown. I turned behind me to see Glitch swinging his ax around, excited by idea of facing me, I had to guess, and increasing his speed with each swing. He seemed to have this unique style of fighting that increased his swing speed by using the momentum of his last swing till he was a blur of ax swings; it was really cool actually. I looked over at Alice to see she was avoiding eye contact with me and fussing with her combat skirt whenever she looked away; if she wore pants this wouldn’t happen and yet saying that would get me killed.  
I gathered them up and laid out the plan I had to minimize time wasted.  
“That’s hoping that nothing attacks us on the way there; we seem to have a track record for encountering creatures that want us dead.” Alice was right; with our luck we were going to run into something but the question would be what we would run into.   
“Could it be another piranha plant?” Glitch questioned.  
“I think we took out the main head last time which means we can’t take on anything bigger than that.” I pointed out. They nodded in agreement but that still left the question of what would be thrown at us here, “Guess that’ll be a surprise.” I stood back up as they did the same and we moved to make our way across the first part of this path. As we moved I noticed this area seemed to be covered in horsetail plants and murky water; horsetail plants are normally in murky water but something seemed wrong about this with both the plant and the water. I decided to ignore that feeling as we dashed across the bricked floor, kicking goombas to the side and hopping over the koopa troopas; the piranha plants were missing from the pipes which gave me the impression that the big one we killed was the main root to the rest of them.  
“Soren! To your left!” Alice yelled back at me prompting me to look to my left to see a koopa troopa trying to deck me with his weird human like fist; I pulled to the right and swung my leg knocking him to the ground. The enemies were becoming more aggressive as we reached the end castle which I understood, we were obviously a threat to them and the closer we got to their commander the more of a hazard we became. As Alice and Glitch caught up to me we increased our pace to dodge any oncoming attacks; I was not going to kill anyone with a sentient mind, if they had a reason to live then they deserved to and I was not going to break that rule. These guys were making it harder to actually keep that with how malicious they came at us…but why? Spike told us that they wanted no casualties which means that these guys should be trying to capture us instead of kill us; I stopped for a minute and took a deep breath, “Soren, come on!” I heard Alice call to me but I couldn’t respond. I had to focus on this, let’s hope my father’s aura sensing lessons can come into play here.  
………………!  
There it is! I felt a powerful aura over the area, it felt malicious and as I looked around I could feel it emanating from every goomba, koopa and even the bullet bills in the area.   
“Stay focused guys! These troops are more hostile, keep your defenses up!” Alice pulled out her katana getting into a guarded stance.  
“What do you mean? I don’t see anything different.” Glitch said confused. He couldn’t feel it and I’m guessing Alice couldn’t either but I could. It wasn’t just any aura either; it seemed to emanate from all over, not from one point but multiple points and it was affecting the troops in a strange way. Alice was trusting my judgment on this matter but Glitch still had grounds to question it. Suddenly I saw as a para-troopa popped up behind Glitch brandishing a knife. I rushed forward and punched the creature in its shell with enough force to send it backwards.  
“Those shells are WAYYYY too hard!” I said as I shook my hand from the intense pain, it was like punching two layers a cinderblocks…hell, even one layer of cinderblocks is too much. I turned to Glitch who gave me a shocked look and then nodded shakily pulling his ax out. He had reason to trust me on this matter now.  
We moved slower now as things continued to come at us with a murderous intent but we eventually made it to the flag pole and took a well-deserved rest from the constant barrage we just pulled through.  
“Looks…like... we made it” Alice said shakily as she bent down with her hands on her knees.  
“That…was not…fun.” Glitch said falling to the floor worn from the constant blocks and retaliations, “The group…just kept getting bigger.”  
“We couldn’t kill them…so they kept coming at us with more force…each time.” I explained trying to catch my breath. That defense tactic had almost worn me out; I had been on a mile run before for school but that felt like five of those and then half a lap after that. They had eaten up a lot of our time but there was still some light left in the day we could use; maybe we could get the next area but then we would be traveling into the night. Alice and I never traveled at night before and I don’t think Glitch would be up to it either. What was that aura or can I even call it that? It wasn’t anything normal I’d felt before, it had this ability to control others with its presence and I’ve never seen an aura do that ever. An aura is created by a person or thing and can only affect the feeling of an area, not the people in it, this seemed to not only exert around the area but effect the people in it as well; it didn’t even come from a person or item, rather, it bounced around the whole area from different points which seemed impossible…until now. 

“They were way more aggressive than I thought they would be.” Glitch said as he had regained his energy; Alice stood up taking a deep breath and steadying her breathing.  
“Well they set us back a bit, so what now?” Well, now was a good a time as ever.  
“We could keep moving?” They gave me a quizzical look.  
“We’ll be traveling into the night you know.” Alice pointed out.  
“I know but we can’t waste any time with the other group possibly on our tail.”  
“I’m up for it.” Glitch responded surprising even me.  
“Really?”  
“The dark is my bread and butter back home; I could probably keep us safe if I lead.”   
“Are you sure you’re good in the dark?” Alice asked in her usual skeptical nature.  
“I’m the best in this group, have either of you ever-”  
“Okay.” I replied before he could finish stopping him mid-scentence.  
“R-Really? Don’t you want proof?”  
“No, I trust you can lead us at night.” He gave me a weird look and then a smile, Alice put her head into her hand shaking her head in the process.  
“All right then, follow me!” He started walking forward like a soldier with his arms extended and his legs straight, it was kind of funny how excited he was.  
“Sometimes I feel like you’re just acting stupid to piss me off.” Alice said with a sigh.  
“You know why I’m doing this though right?”  
“…yeah.” She gave me a smile and started following Glitch; Alice may not like the choices I make but she was at least smart enough to follow. I could understand why she was skeptical of Glitch though; he was hard headed and a little bit selfish but if I looked down on that then it would just be me and her. Besides, a little arrogance is a good thing in a group dynamic in my opinion.

We started moving with Glitch leading us and it was a bit rocky as following him meant we moved slightly slower, I guess I never noticed because he was in the back but that ax really slowed him down and he seemed intent to dash through this place. I always stayed at a steady pace to keep guard on whatever might attack us but Glitch seemed to disregard the enemies and just plow through the front lines. About halfway through the area the sun had sunk into the mountains and the dark of night had covered the area in front of us; Glitch suddenly slowed down and started to move slower and even stopping at some points before he gets moving again. He seemed to be able to pick up sounds we couldn’t hear and whenever he heard something he stopped suddenly, it was like following a secret agent as he sneaked through a government compound. Eventually we made it to the second flag and Glitch and I went to work as we swapped out the two flags; Glitch seemed to be quieter than before as he did this, it was like when night fell Glitch turned into a silent ninja, it was awesome!  
“That should take care of that.” Glitch said dusting himself off for some reason.  
“I’ll admit you seem to know your way through the dark of night.” Alice complimented, “You’re not secretly a thief back in your world are you?”  
“No! I just like to observe the night sky. It isn’t easy to get out of where I live so I have to be quiet and alert to actually get out and see the stars in the sky.” So he was an avid night time watcher, that’s kind of deep.  
“That’s actually kind of cool.” I said actually impressed by his constant training for something he liked.  
“You like the night sky?” Alice asked curious.  
“Are you kidding? It’s amazing, I look to the sky and I see stars that have planets that orbit them; planets full of people and places completely new and fresh that are just waiting to be seen, I want to see everything that I can beyond my planet, there has to be more out there for me.” Glitch snapped out of his monologue and gave a small cough as he turned slightly pinker out of embarrassment, “Sorry, I rambled on there for a minute.”  
“No, it’s actually cool.” Alice replied catching Glitch’s attention, “I really respect someone with aspirations and dreams.” Alice walked away from him leaving him stunned. He just stood there with a look of surprise on his face; I chuckled slightly as Alice approached me.  
“I thought you didn’t like him?”  
“Shut up.” Alice replied with a smile as she playfully punched me in the arm. 

Coming to a unanimous decision we decided to test our luck and continued moving through the next section; as we passed by the troops we noticed that they seemed to have passed out for the night making them easier and harder to pass by. We had to make sure to move quieter and watch our step to avoid waking any of them; it’s like the saying, anger a bee and you get the hive. Even the bullet bills seemed to be sleeping…however that was possible and jumping from platform to platform made things even more hazardous. If the platform was hit to hard when we landed then we could wake something from its slumber; Glitch accounted for this by only going for upper platforms so we would land softly when we ascended then descended to the ground a few inches from our jump level and we helped each other down platforms to avoid making any noise. I was actually really surprised by Glitch’s ability to travel quietly and impressed by his thorough thought process in traveling at night; it was a unique skill that I admired the more I saw of it. He could probably be a special ops soldier with a bit more training. We made it to the flag pole soon after and decided to set up camp for the night; I pulled out the sleeping bags as Glitch set the fire pit and Alice prepared our meal for the night. After our meal and a some light chatter we turned in for the rest of the night to re-energize; I felt lucky that the cloaked boss hadn’t made an appearance yet but I had a feeling that as soon a dawn broke he would be back on his mission of destroying every one of Bowser’s generals, luckily we had warned one of them so far and if he was smart then he would hide from them and stay alive, we had an ace up our sleeve which meant we had the upper hand and he couldn’t take that away. With that thought in my head I drifted into slumber content with what the future would hold.


	13. Chapter 13 (Resurfacing)

I stepped into the empty room feeling the air around me chill as I stepped forward. Every time I took a step I could hear another echo in the distance at the same time; I could tell it wasn’t an echo because the sound came from a distance instead of dissipating like my steps normally would in a hollow walkway. As I continued to walk I could hear the steps become louder, whatever I was walking towards, it was walking towards me. I started to increase my pace and I could hear the same happen to the other set of footsteps; I ran faster and faster until I saw a figure come into view, the blurry shape solidified and the shadow faded leaving…me? As I came to a stop I watched as this look-a-like mimicked my every move. Every detail I had was the same on this doppelganger, the black coat, brown hair, fingerless gloves; everything was spot on; from the left parting of my hair to the moles and pimples I adorned…except, his eyes were a dark red that gave me an uneasy feeling. Suddenly I watched as it flashed a dark grin and pulled out a large broadsword; before I could avoid it I felt the blade run through my stomach as he picked me up with the blade. The blood pooled out of me and it seemed never ending as I watched it congeal onto the floor and spread through the room; as this happened I felt nothing, no pain, no nerves shooting off, not even the empty feeling in my stomach from the stab; I felt…hollow. I looked at the mimic to see he had a crazy look in his eye and gave off an overpowering aura that felt so familiar…but where? As I contemplated this the copy pulled me forward and whispered into my ear.  
“You can’t escape me no matter how much you want to.” That aura…it’s mine from when I was…him.

I woke up springing from the sleeping bag and breathed heavily as I tried to regain my senses. I touched my face to feel it moist with sweat; must have been a nightmare…that one is new though. I looked to see Glitch and Alice were still sleeping peacefully, Glitch rolled as he snored loudly while Alice slept quietly as she gave low breaths only detectable if you watched the rise and fall of her chest…why was I looking at her chest? I stood up and re-equipped myself ready to get moving, the sun was rising over the far off green mountain ridges slowly as I checked our supplies and worked on making a fire pit with our left over fire pit pieces… it shouldn’t be this hard to make a fire pit! After a few failed attempts I gave up and looked up at the fifth castle we had yet to enter, it looked like the previous four we had entered and that made me think, why were there multiple large castles? It seemed strange in retrospect to have multiple castles the size of the main one, quiet the waste of resources as well. Knowing what we encountered in the last few castles then it should only be the main general in here and maybe a piranha plant or two but I doubted we would run into any more of them. Honestly the castles had to be one of the easier parts of this world; all it is is avoiding traps which we were pros at and occasionally jumping over pits of lava and with the mushrooms we’ve had jumping was a lot easier, if I could examine what makes up those mushrooms I would be amazed to see what they were made of to give that type of enhancement to the body. I looked behind me to see Glitch and Alice starting to stir which meant we would be ready to go in about an hour…a heck; if I help it will only take thirty minutes.

After a quick pep talk and some harsh words from both Glitch and Alice for being so loud in the morning we were ready in an hour and fifteen minutes.  
“What kicked you into overdrive today?” Alice asked stretching her arms above her head as she bent from side to side.  
“Yeah, it’s like you woke up with coffee in your veins.” Glitch commented rolling his arm.  
“I’ve never been a morning person but when I do get up in the morning I feel like I can run a marathon. Otherwise I usually sleep till noon.” I responded.  
“Can’t get up until at least ten and waking up with the sun is something new for me.”  
“Same, Usually I wait until the sun is at least to the west before moving from my bed.” They were both evening people…couldn’t blame them, that’s me on a regular day. Once the morning stretches were done they felt better and we entered the fifth castle.

The path was always straight forward but we had the added challenge of spinning flames and lava pits as we jumped, ducked and even slid to get to the bridge. When we approached the bridge we couldn’t find the bridge, all that was left was a giant pit but this one was filled with water and seemed to ripple in certain areas as though something was just touching the top of the water before sinking back down.  
“So you showed up!” We turned our attention to the figure on the other side to see a giant lakitu floating on a cloud; this must be one of Bowser’s generals, “I’ve heard about you and they warned me that you were difficult to defeat so I decided to get a little help.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“Don’t play dumb! You’re the traitor who’s been killing the generals one by one and making this conquest all the harder! Well let’s see how you fare against this, BLOOPER!!!” The water in the pit flew up as something emerged from the chilling depths. It was the giant octopus of the Mario universe; the blooper.

It swung its tentacles at us trying to knock us back as we dodged its movements the best we could but unable to as every time we dodged one tentacle another one shot at us from out of nowhere making it impossible to block or dodge completely. I heard Alice scream as she fell off the platform back onto the lower floor; this thing had too much power and too many means of quick attacks for us to take on with a strategy. Maybe we could work with no strategy.  
“Glitch!” I called out catching his attention, I motioned to the lower platform where Alice was and we jumped down out of the blooper’s reach.  
“That thing is too fast even for me.” Alice said standing back up as she rubbed her back.  
“We can’t come at that thing with a plan that will work. It’s too unpredictable to get a strategy.” Glitch replied.  
“Then let’s not use a plan.” I said catching them off guard.  
“Huh?”   
“Huh?  
“The only way were going to beat this thing is to be equally unpredictable, we have to rush at it and just keep swinging without thinking about where were going to land a blow.”  
“That’s too dangerous for all of us to do, we could hurt each other if were not thinking.” Alice retorted.  
“That’s why I want Glitch to do this.”  
“Me?” Glitch said surprised.  
“I’ve seen your fighting style, you move with the momentum of your ax so you should be able to keep swinging it without thinking too hard about the destination; just point forward and keep swinging!” The both went quiet as they thought.  
“I like it.” Alice said done thinking, “It’s right up his ally.”  
“Better believe it is!” Glitch replied with a thumb up. With a plan formulated Glitch jumped up and began to carry out our unthinking maneuver.

Glitch  
This was awesome! I was the only person who could defeat the blooper because I had a completely different way of fighting that no one could predict. I felt like Jackie Chan only…black. Pulling out my battle ax I took a deep breath and started swinging; the momentum kept building up as I spun it around and around getting faster and I walked towards the blooper as it shot its tentacles at me only to have them cut apart by my whirlwind ax maneuver that was un-breakable. This was my hero moment, I was the only one who could do this and even Soren admitted it! It was my time to shine! Coming closer to the blooper I raised my ax to its body and swung down cleaving the creature in two as it disappeared from existence! Guess bloopers that size aren’t natural. Putting my ax away I looked at my palms to feel the intense burning and see them trembling; every time I pulled off that move it always left my hands feeling like this, it wasn’t easy to hold onto that ax with how fast it was moving, if I didn’t hang on it would fly out of my hands. I didn’t care though, it was a unique move I had and that’s what every hero I know has; something that sets them apart and makes them useful, this was my use, to fight. I felt someone crash into me and saw Soren with his arm slung across my shoulder.  
“That was awesome! You did exactly as I expected and that final blow was flawless! Nice job Glitch!” He was praising me like I had just won the last football game of the season. I was pretty awesome though.  
“What did you expect man, I rock!”  
“Yeah you do!” We bumped fists and laughed at the moment we were sharing.  
“Boys…I’ll never understand them.” Alice said as she walked by us strutting towards the general lakitu.  
“Come on Alice, he did really well there.” Soren said defending me. Alice sighed turning around and walked up to Soren flicking him in the forehead.  
“Don’t inflate his ego!” Before she walked away she looked at me and gave me a smile, “Nice job though.”…what a woman.

We walked up to the lakitu and he pulled out a spiked ball pointing it at Soren as he led us.  
“Stay back! You won’t kill me here!”  
“Calm down. We’re not here to kill you, the message you got about the traitor is not about us.” Soren said slowly trying to calm the general down.  
“They sent me a message that the three travelers in our army betrayed us and you three always wore cloaks so how should I know that you aren’t the traitors.” Crap, he had us there.  
“One of them was a much larger build, were all medium build, don’t you think one of us not being bigger than the others might be cause for suspicion.” Soren had a point, none of us were the massive size of the boss so we couldn’t be them! I’ve never very good at rebuttals when arguing but luckily Soren could do that.  
“He’s right, no one could mistake Soren for me.” That voice! We turned around to see the shapeshifter and large cloaked man standing there, “He’s nowhere near as strong as I am anyway.” They were back! We all pulled out our weapons ready for them to fight and watched as he just gave a sigh, “Brandishing weapons at us is really getting old.” He reached into his cloak to pull something out but I wasn’t going to give him the chance! I rushed forward and jumped to swing at him only to be kicked to the side by the shapeshifter; when I fell I jumped to my feet to see him facing me brandishing his two short swords.  
“Sorry but I don’t think you’ll be doing that to the boss.” He gave a sly smile as he cackled maniacally.   
“…you seem different from a normal underling, why follow him?” I asked. This had been bugging me since our last fight, he seemed strong enough to survive on his own and yet he allied with another; his personality gave me the feeling that he was more of the lone fighter rather than the team player.  
“Power is a strong motivator.” He said looking at me with one eye open, “No matter how strong and skilled I became I could never feel like I was done. I was always hungering for more and he offered me the chance to gain more power; to be specific the powers of a shapeshifter.” He wasn’t like that before!? This was getting weird, “I can’t begin to fathom how he came across the power to bestow this type of power upon others but I feel much more powerful with it…and yet, there’s you.”   
“Me?”  
“You, him, and her. All of you seem to be able to hold your own against this world even with the chaos we brought into it and I wonder how, you are all normal humans and yet you defeated the piranha plant and blooper. It makes me wonder what you three are hiding under your sleeve; especially that boy, the boss seems very interested in what he has inside him.”   
“What are you talking about?”  
“Don’t know? It should be clear, you experienced it yourself against him right?” When I went insane?  
“Why do you care about that?”  
“You know, I’m getting sick of answering your questions; how about you answer mine?” He was toying with me, “Where are your parents?” What!?  
“What-what do you mean?”  
“Do you think they care about you? Did they ever care? How does it feel to be an-”  
“SHUT UP!” I swung my ax at him feeling my rage build, how did he know about that!? I’ve never met him before! No one should know about that!!!  
“That’s what I wanted.”

Soren  
He started to pull something out of his cloak and Glitch rushed forward at him trying to strike him; as he jumped up Damien jumped to the side and kicked him to the side tumbling with him. Alice and I returned our attention to the boss as he pulled out a large buster sword; Final Fantasy VII! He rushed at us and swung with almost no effort as Alice dove to the right and I dove to the left rolling back on my feet.  
“You know, I expected to see you again.” He said pointing the blade at me, “But your female compatriot was a surprise, most people who finish their quest in one world go home and don’t come back into this situation.” He swung again trying to catch me in his swings as I backed away and moved to the left and right avoiding his down swings, “Seems re-returns are found in groups.”   
“What do you mean?” I asked rushing at him and swinging as he blocked with his large blade, “So others have avoided your temptations of power?” Pushing me off, he laughed.  
“There were those before my mission who have completed the task they were assigned, from what I understand they never traveled again. There are only a few returners I know of and you and the girl are numbers two and three.” Alice snuck up and stuck at him as he caught the blade with his buster sword and sent the katana flying out of her hand, “I was expecting to see you again, you had this strange…quality that I knew SHE couldn’t ignore.” She?  
“The voice? The one who talked to me when I entered the worlds.”  
“Correct Soren, SHE is the one that sends travelers from world to world to remedy the problems she finds that pop up out of nowhere and are unnatural to the process that is supposed to happen, sometimes it’s another world tampering with dimensions and sometimes…it’s other travelers.” He grabbed Alice by her throat and lifted her up, he then flung her at me knocking me down, “I suppose not every traveler can end up doing what they are supposed to, there will always be a thorn in someone’s side no matter what you try to do to avoid it.”   
“I suppose you’re considered a problem traveler?” I said as Alice and I got back on our feet.  
“No, I AM the problem traveler; you think that those other travelers go messing with world on their own? I run the game they play and continue to gather as many travelers as I can into my legion.” Alice picked up her katana and we faced him with weapons brandished in his direction, “Stragglers always arise but they either die or turn themselves over to me…but then there are you two.” He pointed his blade at us with a glare, “You alter the game by showing up again, and I see this as an opportunity as much as I see it as a problem.” Putting away his sword he disappeared into thin air and I felt my body pushed away as Alice was lifted into the air by the cloaked man. He began to choke her and she flailed trying to break free; I rushed to help and felt as I was stopped by some kind of barrier of darkness, Kingdom Hearts 2, “Can’t save your friend Soren?” I swung my sword trying to break it with all my strength but watched as every blow just sent a tiny shockwave and dissipated into nothing leaving no scratch on the barrier he erected. I watched as Alice struggled harder as her windpipe was being crushed by him and felt myself become angrier, she can’t die! I won’t let her die! It won’t end for her here! Alice motioned to me with a desperate look and reached out to me; in that moment I paused as I saw a tear stream down from Alice’s face onto the brick floor.  
“LET HER GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”


	14. Chapter 14 (He's back)

Asuna  
I watched as the barrier surrounding me and the cloaked man broke and there stood him. He rushed forward crashing into the man knocking him away and me to the ground; hacking and coughing I got up from the ground inhaling as much as I could and rubbing my throat. Why was this happening again? Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t Soren; that crazy look in his eye, his slumped over posture and his heavy breathing gave me the feeling that this was someone completely separate from him. Even after seeing Glitch in his lost state of mind he still retained some sense of who he was, but Soren didn’t; this was someone who wasn’t even remotely him. He looked over at me and snarled in a beast like manner; then he laughed.  
“THANKS GIRLIE, I THOUGHT I WOULD NEVER GET THIS OPPORTUNITY AGAIN.”  
“Another opportunity for me has opened.” We both looked over at the boss to see he was dusting himself off with no signs he was even thrown across the room, “Good to see you again, it’s been too long.”  
“SEEMS WE WERE MEANT TO MEET AGAIN.”   
“My offer still stands other.” He extended his hand out towards the other.  
“DON’T CALL ME THAT, I DON’T WANT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THAT WEAK BRAT.”  
“Then what should I call you?”  
“HMMM…HOW ABOUT, JAREK?” Jarek?   
“Fine then Jarek, my offer stands, you could become more powerful. Powerful enough to overlap that fool for control of the body. Even destroy him completely.” What?  
“DESTROY SOREN? TEMPTING OFFER INDEED.”  
“NO!” I pulled out my katana standing between…‘Jarek’ and the cloaked man, “I will not let you destroy Soren, give him back!” I yelled pointing my sword at Jarek.  
“HE GAVE ME CONTROL GIRL, WHEN HE BECAME ANGRY ENOUGH I WAS ABLE TO TAKE THE REIGNS. I’M LIKE THE HULK AND THE HULK DOESN’T LISTEN TO ANYONE WHO HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT.” He picked up the buster sword the boss had dropped when he was sent flying and pointed it at me; it felt wrong having Soren point a blade at me…no! It’s not Soren, he would never point a weapon at me, this thing is not Soren; I’ve faced it before, I just have to call out to Soren to bring him back. Before I could begin to move I felt something crash into me and saw Glitch push me aside with all his might.

“What?” I crashed into the floor as Glitch took my place staring at Jarek with that look from before in his eyes, “Glitch, stop! That’s not Soren, it’s something dangerous!” As I shouted Glitch stood there unblinking as he kept focused on Jarek; nothing I said was getting through!  
“That worked well.” I turned around to see the shapeshifter form out of nowhere, “You were right, his past was his trigger.”  
“It always is.” The boss replied, “Everyone is here to escape their past and he was no different.” They did what they did with me again? Glitch was crazy again while Soren wasn’t even here; if I don’t do something both of them will be gone for good. I stood up and started rushing towards them when I suddenly was stopped by a large gust of wind pushing me back, “Sorry but I can’t let you interfear like last time.” No! I had to do something! Why can’t I move? I have to do something! Soren, Glitch!

Jarek  
THE BOY STOOD IN FRONT OF ME BRANDISHING HIS AX AS I STOOD THERE STONE FACED, THIS BOY WAS NOTHING BUT A CHILD WITH A LARGE TOY. HE RUSHED AT ME SLICING WILDLY AS I BLOCKED HIS NEXT MOVE WITH MY LARGE SWORD; PUSHING HIM BACK I RUSHED FORWARD SLICIG AT HIS MID-SECTION. DAMN HEAVY BLADE, TOO SLOW TO MAKE A GOOD HIT; HE BACKED UP JUST IN TIME AVOIDING MY SLASH, I RUSHED FORWARD SOCKING HIM IN THE JAW WITH MY FACE SENDING HIM TO THE GROUND. HE ROLLED BACK ONTO HIS FEET AND CHRGED AT ME WITH A CLEAVING MOVE WHICH I WAS ABLE TO BLOCK WITH MY BLADE FLAT.  
“Soren, snap out of it!” THE GIRL WAS SHOUTING AT ME TRYING TO BRING HIM BACK BUT I DON’T PLAN ON LETTING THAT HAPPEN. PUSHING THE AFRICAN BOY ASIDE I RUSHED AT THE GIRL READY TO STAB.  
…No!  
FEELING MY HEAD SPLIT WITH PAIN I STOPPED; DAMN IT YOU SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO INTERFEAR. TRYING AGAIN THE SAME PAIN AROSE.  
…No!  
STOP INTERFEARING, YOU GAVE ME CONTROL, IT’S MY TURN TO DECIDE WHAT TO DO!  
Not if you’re going to hurt my friends, you only gained control to save her; I won’t let you hurt her now!  
NO, THIS IS MY BODY NOW!  
NoT iF I cAn HeLp it! You will not hurt her or Glitch! 

Soren  
Feeling my mind return and Jarek’s disappear I took a deep breath relieved that I could think again, I looked up at Alice and dropped the enormous buster sword as she gave me a wide smile.  
“Sorry about that.”  
“I’m just glad you’re back.” She replied with a sigh.  
“So that’s why she came back to. Intresting.” We both turned to the boss and Damien as they looked at us; the boss looked at us with deep thought in his eyes while Damien had a shocked look on his face.  
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”  
“No but it gave me more time to think, besides, we still have the other one.” The other one? We turned around to see Glitch bearing down on us as he swung to cleave me; I pulled out my blade ready to block as I remembered that his blows can destroy my sword, only one thing I can try right now. I pulled out my hidden second longsword and overlapped the two as the ax collided with them with all its strength; luckily both swords were able to absorb the blow and stay intact, thank you back-up blade. Pushing him back I put away the second blade and came at him with a swipe cutting his ax in half as I split the wood handle it was held with. He had no weapon and came at me with his fists swinging wildly as I dodged his swings; grabbing both his wrists I looked him in the eyes intently.  
“Glitch, stop! This isn’t you, what if I was someone you loved, a family member?”  
“DON’T TALK ABOUT MY FAMILY!!!!!” He broke free and kicked me in the gut sending me back, seems family is a touchy subject for him; I’ll save that for later. Swiping his leg I sent him to the ground and pointed my sword at him.  
“Glitch stop! It’s me, Soren, don’t you want to be the hero? If you kill your own ally then what type of hero are you?” He lied there as his breathing slowed and his eyes went back to normal. Eventually he just stayed there as I sheathed my sword; seems he finally calmed down.  
“Too bad.” I turned my attention to the two intruders as the boss sighed, “He can’t even beat you, what type of warrior is he?” I looked back at him and thought to myself, I don’t think he wanted to hurt me deep down. Our last fight when he was like that he didn’t hold anything back but this time he didn’t even build up speed first, he was holding back against me because he wanted to, “No matter, seems like I’ll have to go back to plan B.” He turned to the lakitu general who was looking terrified from what he just saw, “Time to die lakitu.” Moving as fast as I could I jumped in front of the lakitu to protect him and saw Alice do the same.  
“Not if we can help it!” I said giving him a menacing glare.  
“We stopped you before, we can do it again!” Alice added.  
“You think you won? Naïve children.” Suddenly a large shockwave emanated from his body and I felt my body go numb and Alice and I fell to the floor unable to move, “Don’t worry, you won’t die, but I can’t have you interfering here.” He kicked us aside and approached the panicking general.  
“Stay back! I won’t go easy on you! No!” He threw spiked ball after ball at him as he just caught them and threw them back into the pool of water behind him where the bridge use to be. When he approached him he picked up the buster sword and sliced across the creature silencing its cries forever.

We failed to protect a general from them, it felt worse because we actually made it before them but we couldn’t stop them. Even worse we almost fell to their side, what were we trying to do!? We could barely take them on let alone protect others from them, why were we even trying!?  
“We will meet again.” He said as they walked past us out of the castle into the next area. I just lied there takin in the failure we had just endured, we were running out of time and we only had two generals we could save before he made it to Bowser. It might as well have been over.  
…  
“You’re not giving up are you?” I looked up to see Glitch was standing over me, “If we’re going to save this world than we can’t give up.”  
“We already have, it doesn’t matter how far ahead we are, they’re always going to catch up and beat us.”  
“Bull crap! We can’t just give up because we feel like we can’t win, if we don’t keep trying then they win and people die!” He picked me up by the collar of my shirt and looked me in the eyes with an intense glare, “Are you willing to let all those people die because you decided to give up, because I’m not! If you’re going to spare our enemies to save them then you better be ready to save those you’re trying to protect to! Got it?”…He was right, I can’t give up here, we’ve come too far to just quit now! I wasn’t going to let them destroy this world; I didn’t let them last time so this should be no exception!   
“Got it!” I replied standing on my own two feet, he gave me a grin; now was not the time to give up!

We got everything in order and grabbed an ax with a steel handle from the armory and ran out the door of the castle towards the sixth castle with everything we had. The others were already gone but I expected that, we moved through every obstacle as quick as we could deciding to ignore the position of the sun, if we were going to stop them then we were going to have to travel through the day and the night to reach the next castle. As we moved I contemplated our current problems. We had the cloaked guy and Damien moving from castle to castle killing the generals at each one to instill the idea that the Mushroom Kingdom was killing Bowser’s men and he was instilling hate into the citizens of the kingdom to fuel both sides into a full war, he was looking to destroy both sides and leave the world in a state of turmoil and hate, if we were going to stop him we had to convince Bowser that he was the one who was causing all this and calm down the citizens so they don’t cause more hostility. In order to convince Bowser we have to save as many generals as possible and convince them to support us in our accusation of the cloaked man. As for us, I had to convince Glitch to open up to me and Alice so we can help him overcome his issues, with those problems weighing him down he could turn at any moment and not come back. This was the point where we couldn’t wane, couldn’t falter and couldn’t make any mistakes or it was game over for us and this world.


	15. Chapter 15 (Glitch's past)

“Wait…can we…stop for a minute.” Alice said panting and heaving out of breath. We had made it to the third part of the sixth area with no stops and flawless flag placing; I looked back at Glitch to see he was having trouble running for this long as well and Alice had stopped and was sitting on the floor. Guess they weren’t use to running for this long; I was on track for a few years during middle school and kept up my routine of daily running from the bus to the house and in recent cases from my house to the hospital to see Alice.   
“Sure.” We stopped and decided to rest at the flag post outside the castle; even if Damien and his boss showed up they wouldn’t get past us as long as we’re here which meant we had time to wait…this might be my one opportunity, “Hey Glitch?” He looked over at me still catching his breath, “Now that we have time, can you tell us why family is so sensitive a topic for you?” He gave me a slight look of surprise and Alice gave me the same; probably surprised I asked it here, “If you don’t want to tell me that’s fine.”  
“…No, I’ll tell you but in return, you two have to tell you stories.” I looked over at Alice who gave me a nod.  
“Deal.” I replied and there was a strange silence for a few moments as Glitch collected his thoughts.  
“…Most people know who their parents are when their born, they grow up with them, live happy lives and make them proud. I never had that chance; from the first day I can remember I have always been an orphan and I’ve always lived in the orphanage. Being there as a kid I always hoped to be adopted, to live a normal life, to grow up with loving parents…but it never came. I would watch as kids would come and go leaving me behind as they entered the arms of their adopted family; friends I had known for years would be gone the next day and I wouldn’t meet them ever again. It hurt, they’re happy faces hurt to see because I never got to feel that way; I never let that get to me though, I was happy for everyone around me and I saw them off with a smile, like friends are supposed to do. Around my thirteenth birthday things became more stationary, no one wanted a teenager for a kid and even the other kids in the orphanage looked at me the same…like I have no reason to be here. As far as they were concerned I could have been a raccoon taking their food; it was clear no one wanted me around anymore, even I began to feel like a waste of space. Then one day, the goodwill service brought in an old Nintendo Entertainment System with a few games and controller; those games I played were the most fun I had back then, it wasn’t just the adventure, it was the heroes of those games I idolized. They started off as nothing and became heroes through their courage and determination to do the right thing, to save those in trouble and defend what matters; because of them I vowed to be like those heroes, to be kind and courageous and never give up no matter how tough things got. I always felt that Mario embodied that idea the best, he was just a plumber but through his knowledge of the pipe system and chivalry to save a princess he rose from an ordinary plumber to a hero that was beloved by everyone around the world. Remember that story about the car that almost hit me? During that day I watched a little kid run into the road after his friends on the other side and I watched as a car went peeling down the street right at them. I knew what I had to do, I jumped forward and pushed him out of the way as the car came at me know; luckily the car came to a screeching halt and didn’t hit me but I looked around me to see everyone hadn’t even looked at what happened, they just kept walking totally oblivious to what just happened. Even the kid I saved dusted himself off and kept moving after their friends; no one thought anything about what I did, it was like my death wouldn’t affect the world in any way and everybody knew it. Even the car that stopped began to honk for me to get out of the way; it felt like this world didn’t need me. From then on I would sneak out at night and look up at the starry night sky and imagine of a world that would care about me, where I could be a hero to them. One night when I came back I looked to see the orphanage over looker was doing a head count and I watched as they skipped my bed and kept moving…it hurt then. The person who had taken care of me for my life didn’t even notice I was gone, at that moment I wished for a world where people would care about me and then the old T.V. the NES was hooked up to began to glow and it said,  
DO YOU WANT PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT YOU?  
YES NO  
It was like it was talking directly to me and knew what I was feeling, I picked up the controller and pressed yes hoping that it would give me what I want, next thing I know I woke up in this world with Mario looking down at me or, Damien looking down at me I guess. I felt this was my chance; I could become a hero here and have people who would care about their valiant savior around me. My name would be known and I would have people who care about me, it was my dream come true. I would never have to worry about being adopted because I wouldn’t need a family. They would never know that the son they gave up was a hero and they would never be proud of him, they didn’t deserve Gareth anyway.” As he finished his story I saw as tears began to fall from his eyes, Glitch…no, Gareth was torn up inside. All he wanted was a family, like everyone else had and with every day he spent in that orphanage he loathed the parents who gave him up, in the end he gave up the idea of a family, he wants to stand on a higher pedestal than everyone, to feel like the hardships he faced were worth it and he could become those he idolized…but he was better than any of them.  
“You’re right. They didn’t deserve you.” Glitch looked up with tears in his eyes with a look of shock as I said that, “If they couldn’t see the son they gave up would turn into a courageous man who could stand and fight for himself then they don’t deserve you. You’re better than they’ll ever be because the Gareth I know might be hard headed and a little cocky but he’s an amazing outdoorsman, a hell of a sewer and an awesome teammate and friend.” I stood up and extended my hand to him, “You wanted someone to care about you, well you’ve got one.”  
“Make that two.” I looked to my side to see Alice had extended her hand as well, “You can’t go dying on us then, we’re not going to let you.”  
“Now that we care about you your life is a part of ours, we won’t let you make a grand sacrifice or ditch you, we stick together.” His face lit up as we said that and he grabbed our hands as we lifted him up, our bond was established and with this we were unbreakable, I wasn’t going to let Gareth or Alice fall into his hands, that’s my vow and I’ll keep it as long as I live.

Alice and I told our past to Gareth as we walked into the castle, we weren’t going to break our promise to him but we couldn’t stop moving so we had to tell our story during our travel time. We told him about everything we knew; our past, our reasons to enter another world, our adventure through that world and how we came over our personal issue by relying on each other and becoming stronger.   
“That’s how our fist adventure ended and how we know each other today.” Alice said taking a deep breath from talking for so long.  
“I’m sorry about everything you two went through.” Gareth said looking sympathetic, even though he seemed to be in the worse of the situations he was still caring to our plights, he really was a good person deep down and it showed in how he acted to others. We came upon the bridge and saw a blooper at the end of the bridge…still alive! It was smaller than the giant one we fought but it was a blooper that floated at the end of the bridge, it was a beautiful thing to see one of the generals alive.  
“Halt, who are you?” The blooper yelled at us…I guess its mouth is in the center under its tentacles.  
“We’re here to warn you about the traveler who has been killing the generals of your army.” I explained hoping the message had gotten to him.  
“So you three are the ones who have been traveling across the Mushroom kingdom to warn us? I expected someone tougher looking.”  
“Tougher looking? I’m tough!” Gareth responded obviously offended by the bloopers comment.  
“Tougher LOOKING Gareth, we’re teenagers, we don’t look very tough.” Alice pointed out. Gareth grumbled to himself ignoring the blooper now. I turned back to the blooper to continue my warning.  
“I’m here to say that if you can hide you should.”   
“Why?”  
“These guys are tougher than you think, a fight will end badly, please for your sake and the kingdoms I must ask that you find a way to Bowser secretly and when the cloaked man shows up you must side against him.” The blooper looked at me skeptical at my words and then calmed down returning to his original stance… it was hard to tell what his relaxed stance was when he was just eyes and tentacles.   
“I believe you, your eyes do not lie, thank you for the warning, I will be on my way. I must ask that you do me a favor though.” A favor?  
“What do you need?” He motioned to the lower ground and we walked over to see two people tied up. It was Mario and Luigi tied up back to back!  
“If what you say is true then I must ask you to convince those two to side with you as well, we are only generals to Bowser so convincing Peach to look over the deaths they have caused will take another Mushroom kingdom citizens word.” He was right about that, they must have caused massive death from both sides so we needed support from each side. When I looked back to thank the blooper he had disappeared completely, must have headed for the secret passage to Bowser. 

We quickly untied the brothers and calmed them down long enough to explain the situation that was happening.  
“So we’re supposed to believe that one of Bowser’s hired guns betrayed him and is working towards a full scale war between both sides?” Mario said skeptical.  
“YES!” We all said tired of explaining it to him, his head was surprisingly thick given his quick thinking reputation.  
“Should we trust them bro?” Luigi asked a little worried by our news based on his fidgeting.  
“Well some cloaked jerk knocked me out a few months earlier and kept me tied up somewhere until a few days ago.”  
“Wait, what?” I asked surprised by this information.  
“A few months while on my way to do a plumbing job I was approached by a cloaked guy and he knocked me out, when I woke up I was in some closet for a few months until I broke out and was captured by Bowser’s men still tied up.”  
“But bro, you only went missing when this whole invasion started. I mean, you were acting weird for those few months but you were home each day.”  
“No he wasn’t.” I butted in catching Luigi off guard making him jump, “That wasn’t Mario you were with, it was Damien.”  
“Damien!?” Gareth said surprised by my accusation.  
“He’s a shapeshifter which meant he could take Mario’s place and no one would see any difference between the two of them by sight, he could play as Mario and do as he pleased. My guess is he instigated the goombas to go to Bowser with a plan for mutiny against the Mushroom Kingdom and started this whole thing.”  
“Then we have to clear my name!” Mario said obviously pissed at being impersonated, “I’ll talk to Peach and-”  
“Won’t work.” Alice said cutting Mario off, “Damien’s been dragging your name in the dirt so no one would trust you when you came back into the picture and with you and your brother trapped here you had no way of clearing you name.”   
“They were working at starting a flawless war; instigate invasion, have violence from both sides and no second opinion from either side by removing any credible people for the main heads to rely on. Then the bloodbath would commence.” I explained surprising the two brothers.  
“Despicable!” Gareth said angrily, “There’s no honor or gain in war! Why would they do this?”  
“We’re going to have to ask them when we see them at the end.” I said pulling two hats out of my belt, one red and one green, “I believe these are yours?” Their faces lit up as they took their hats and put them on with vigor in their eyes. The pieces had been placed, we had figured out the cloaked man’s plan and now all that was left was to stop it from taking place. Our stand against war was coming closer and if we slowed down then it would end in disaster for everyone involved, with our two heroes we now had a stronger chance and this was one we weren’t going to lose!


	16. Chapter 16 (Water trouble)

Exiting the sixth castle we took a head dive into the next area excited to have a chance at stopping the cloaked man, we know had Mario and Luigi following us and in full support and two generals of Bowser’s army in our hand so he had no chance! The area ahead was much more treacherous with the bullet bill cannons everywhere as well as the goomba and koopa foot soldiers patrolling from the castle to the flag steps; we dashed and ducked and dodged every hazard, occasionally getting into a fist fight with a koopa but coming out on top. Seems Mario and Luigi also wanted to avoid needless bloodshed when fighting and with the circumstances it made sense, Gareth and Alice seemed to be use to the routine and moved flawlessly as the dodged oncoming hits and enemies.  
“Soren look out!” I quickly jumped over the oncoming bullet bill and rolled onto the ground and kept running, “Be careful!” Alice yelled as we kept running, “You keep spacing out and that could get you killed.”  
“Sorry, just a habit.” I replied scratching the back of my head. After moving over a buzzy beetle we made it to the flag pole; as Gareth and I started to replace the flag we were bumped off by Mario and Luigi who were doing the same. We all fell to the ground painfully as none of us actually reached the flag pole.  
“What are you two doing?” Mario said angrily at us.  
“I should be asking you that! We were putting up our flag!” Gareth responded holding up his custom flag.  
“That’s what we were doing.” Luigi responded holding up a flag with a red M and green L on it with an & symbol in the middle of them. Seems they wanted to do what we had done for the previous worlds.  
“This is our thing!” Gareth said defensively.  
“Well we’ve got a better flag!” Mario responded.  
“What!? Your flag sucks!”  
“Enough!” Alice cut in rubbing her forehead annoyed at the pointless bickering, “It’s a big flag post, just share it you morons!” As she walked away they decided to share it and we placed the respective flags on the pole side by side…not the best set up but it would have been an argument of who gets the top after that and I wasn’t going to let that happen. After that debate we took a small break to eat and enjoyed some rations we got from the previous castle.  
“Hey Mario, Luigi.” They turned their heads to face me, “You live near the castle right? What’s the area like?”   
“Well, right before the castle there is a town where a majority of the toads of the mushroom kingdom live, it’s just like any other town; houses, restaurants, everything; if we’re headed to the castle then we have to pass through there.” That town is probably covered from head to toe in soldiers patrolling the streets for any one they haven’t captured; we’re going to have to be careful if we’re going through there.  
“Hey bro, do you think our house is okay?” Luigi asked a little depressed, “I mean, if they took over the town then our house might be-”  
“Don’t worry Luigi; I’m sure our house is fine.” Mario replied cheering his brother up; seems like Mario is a good person after all, the first version I met in this world was just a jackass who I honestly hated. Now I didn’t hate Mario, I hated Damien and all subsequent underlings of the cloaked man…well, except Lissa; something about her seemed…different from those two. I couldn’t put my finger on it but she seemed to have something about her, she wasn’t as ruthless as those other two were…maybe if I could talk to her I could convince her to get away from that man. 

Once we had finished refueling I checked the position of the sun to see how far we could travel before it got dark; the sun was still high in the sky which meant we could get to the next castle before the sun started to set and if we hurried through the castle then by night we should be on the last area. We put everything away and headed to the next part of the area; we looked out at a giant stretch of water towards the next castle, we had to travel across the lake in front of us to get there.   
“This lake, finally.” Gareth said excited, “We’re almost near the end.”   
“Yeah, hey is there like a way around this lake we can walk?” Alice said fidgeting uncomfortably, this was odd.  
“It’s quicker to go across than find a route around, we have to swim.”  
“You know water is bad for my hair, I’d rather not ruin it.” Her hair!?  
“What have you done with Alice?” I said unbelieved at Alice’s hair fixation, “For the time I’ve known you I’ve seen you spill all manner of liquids on your hair and brush it off as just sticky hair, I’ve seen hairs stick out unnaturally throughout your hair and the one time you tried brushing your hair you got bored and stopped after five brush strokes.”  
“How do you know that? That’s creepy.”  
“You know my brain collects every piece of data, every time we hang out my brain catalogs what it can. Now answer the question.”  
“Damnit…fine.” Alice said giving up, “I…I don’t know how to swim.” There was a silence and then a small inner laugh from Gareth, “Shut it Gareth!”  
“You don’t know how to swim?”  
“I’ve been stuck in a hospital bed for over ten years, not very good practice time to kick my feet in water!” She blushed horribly embarrassed by admitting this, “So I don’t know how to swim. What now?” Her not being able to swim was a small problem and even then if she could I don’t think she would have been comfortable stripping down to undergarments to get across, “Why are you blushing?” Alice asked intently glaring at my heated up face. Damn my male libido! I swear it’s going to get me killed!  
“No reason, anyway we should find a way around.” I said diverting attention from my current predicament.  
“But that will take longer.” Mario pointed out.  
“It might take us a little longer to get across but it’s safer than going through the lake, remember the last time Gareth?” He nodded his head.  
“True, last time we were almost eaten by a giant cheep-cheep and I’d rather not relive that experience.” Gareth said agreeing with me on this.   
“Look, there’s a bridge just a few meters away.” Alice said pointing to her left toward a line in the distance. Coming to a decision we decided to take the bridge and when we reached it we were a bit worried by its state; the rope looked frayed with age and the wood was rotting from the water, “Seems safe.”  
“You’re crazy.” Gareth responded obviously unconvinced of this bridges durability. I took a step onto the bridge and heard the wood underneath start to splinter.  
“This is a death trap of a bridge!” Mario said taking a step back, “We cross that we’ll end up in water anyway!”  
“Then there’s no risk right?” Gareth pointed out, “Even if we fall in we’ll still make it across.” He had a point; it wasn’t that big of a risk.  
“I beg to differ, again, I CAN’T SWIM!” Alice said obviously terrified.  
“We’ll walk slowly so it doesn’t break, okay?” I said trying to calm her down.  
“…okay, just don’t break the bridge.” Finally calming her down I took the first step moving slowly and making sure there wasn’t any cracking with each step I took; I also avoided holding the rope so I didn’t snap what was left of it, looked very fragile. Alice was clinging to my jacket as we crossed with a grip that could rip my coat.  
“Are you afraid of water?” I asked.  
“No, just deep bodies of water. You know I can’t use my legs in our world so water has always been a big hazard for me. If I fall in I can’t swim up to the surface, I’d sink into the water below and not be able to get back up and drown. It’s terrifying to think about.” She was freaked out by this, made sense though; with no lessons in swimming she would flail and drown in the bottom of the lake.  
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you drown.” I said trying to cheer her up.  
“You better keep that promise.”  
“Have I let you down yet?”  
“Just keep me above water and we’re good.” Deciding to end the conversation there we walked in silence as I slowly crossed the bridge at the head of the pack making sure every step would keep the bridge in one piece. As we crossed I heard something cut above the water but when I looked at where the noise came from I would see a small ripple of water from where it dove back down.  
“Gareth, keep your hands on your weapon, something’s following us.” Giving me a nod Gareth pulled his battle axe off his back as I unsheathed my longsword; we walked a little quicker as I kept walking if I only heard a small crack, we had to get across as fast as we could before whatever was following us decided to appear and kill us. I could see the other end of the bridge come into view and we increased our pace; suddenly I heard the creature resurface and dive in rapid succession and began to run. Some of the wood fell apart but Alice continued to cling meaning she wouldn’t fall in as long as I kept moving. We made it to the end of the bridge and the creature jumped into the air at the end of the bridge crashing down to catch us as we ran off the bridge; grabbing Alice I dove onto the end of the bridge and crossed the threshold of land and water crashing into grass as the giant cheep-cheep took a chunk of the bridge into the water destroying it.

Mario, Luigi and Gareth fell into the water and flailed around confused for a second and then began to swim toward us; I watched as the cheep-cheep surfaced and rushed at them with its mouth wide open intent to eat them. Before it took off I quickly jumped onto it digging my blade into its back causing it to stop and move around in pain trying to shake me off.  
“Gareth, help!” I screamed as I was rocked from side to side as the creature flailed hoping to eject me and my sword from its back, “I’m going to hurl.”  
“Hang on!” speeding forward Gareth swung his axe clumsily in the water cutting the creature right below its mouth catching the cheep-cheep’s attention. Taking that moment of diverted attention I grabbed two fire flowers from my belt and threw them at Mario and Luigi who looked at each other confused then at me.   
“Gareth, push him back towards land.”  
“Are you crazy?”  
“No, just trust me on this!” We worked together as Gareth sliced at the creature knocking it back as I tried to pull my sword out pulling the cheep-cheep backwards as Gareth pushed. None of our hits were enough to kill it but I had a plan; when we made it to land I pulled back with all my strength and pulled it onto the land as Gareth pushed it up out of the water. I looked at the Mario bros who had just finished eating the fire flowers, “Flambé him!” They both held out their hands and shot two massive fire balls that hit the front of the fish roasting it in the front to an almost burnt degree; I think it was safe to say the fish was dead. Pulling my sword out I swung it removing the still fresh blood of the fish and sheathed my blade. Gareth pulled himself out of the water and panted, tired from holding the fish up for those few seconds.  
“That…was…crazy…I love it!” Gareth said hi-fiving me with what energy he had left.  
“Boys.” Alice said scoffing, “Why didn’t you just use the flower to roast it from the inside with your sword?”  
“This is an item that is native to the Mushroom kingdom, I was sure that Mario and Luigi had more experience using it than I did and I was right.” I responded holding up a fire flower.  
“That was a huge gamble you know.” Alice responded.  
“I agree.” Gareth said lying on his back panting, “I never want to lift a ten ton fish again.”  
“So are we cooking this thing up?” Luigi asked poking the belly of the fish.  
“No…it’s too burnt.” I replied, “Besides fish isn’t that good.”

After deciding to leave the fish carcass floating in the water we climbed up the stairs and jumped to put our respective flags on the pole side by side; the sun was setting into the mountains turning the orang-tinted area into a deep blue. We came to a decision that we should stop for the night and rest up, pushing a group this big was a bad idea, especially with Gareth leading us; I trusted his judgment in the dark but it was still much more difficult to lead four people than two. Setting a fire we sat down and discussed our plan of action for when we meet Bowser.  
“So we’ll just approach him in a calm and orderly fashion and explain ourselves, hopefully the others will be there.”  
“And if they’re not?” Mario brought up, “Then what?” That was actually a good question, those two or three generals were the only tie we had to convince Bowser of our intentions and without them then we end up on the fried end of Bowser’s breath. Could I depend on them…what am I saying?  
“They’ll be there.” I said confidently prompting Mario to roll his eyes and Gareth gave me a wide grin.  
“If you’re positive.” Mario said standing up and getting into his sleeping bag; I guess we were done talking. Putting out the fire we all headed to our respective sleeping bags and fell to sleep. With our current pace we would be able to make it to Bowser in about two or three days; by then all the pieces would be in place, we had the cloaked man beat and I was positive he had no way of beating us. Eventually we would win and he wouldn’t be able to stop us, just like last time; just like this time!


	17. Chapter 17 (Castle 7)

Deciding I could appreciate the morning sun some other time I leapt out of my sleeping bag waking everyone up around me as fast as I could so we could get moving quickly; we all equipped ourselves and rushed into the third part of the seventh area eager to stay ahead of the other group…hopefully we were still ahead. I had no way of knowing whether or not they traveled through the night or rested at the same time we did, as far as I knew they were human which meant they needed to rest.  
“Hey Soren, notice where we are?” Alice said nudging me in the shoulder. I knew what she was talking about though; we had made it to the farthest point in the Mario game we had ever made. It was surreal to be in an area of constant deaths in game for both of us.  
“Weird to think we can just cross it normally now.”  
“You’re telling me.”  
“What about this place?” Gareth asked cutting in on the conversation.  
“When we played the game we could never make it past this part and it ended badly for both of us.” I explained chuckling.  
“Really? This was one of the easier stages, just jumping across bridges.” Gareth replied confidently.  
“It’s hard when you have to dodge enemies along the way.” Alice replied holding back her anger at his laid back comment.  
“Not really. Honestly it’s one of the easier stages.”  
“No it isn’t you gloating bastard!” Alice yelled, “I’m sick of let’s players saying that all the time.” Alice was very…passionate about her difficulty with games.  
“Can we move on please?” Mario asked beckoning us over to him; he and Luigi were waiting for us at the beginning of the stage. Deciding to put the argument of difficulty on hold we all headed out to cross the bridge leading to the seventh castle; it was a relatively easy trek with our big group and added flexibility compared to the game. Thinking back on it, these worlds all seemed much more possible to deal with as an actual person rather than a game person, were these worlds really the worlds of our games…they seemed to different; not only in the visual aspects but in the fact that these worlds seemed to almost mirror the earth in how the laws of the world work. The only exception that existed was magic which seemed to take different forms in each world; for Hyrule I had inner magic that I had to draw out with the rod and here it was the same but instead of a channel we had fire flowers which enhanced our ability with fire magic, and in some cases let us bring out better magic than just fire balls. When we went up against the giant piranha plant I was able to use my last bit of energy to give Gareth’s axe fire power and burn the plant so we could win, these weren’t the rules of the Mario world, these were rules all their own; which made me wonder what these worlds were and how they fit in to my prior knowledge…and who sent me to these worlds. All I know is that this person is female and somehow has the power to pull others from one world to another, when I got home I was going to have to research that as well as anything about travelers that I could dig up.

We made it to the end of the section and looked up at the seventh castle as Gareth and Mario put up their flags, this was castle seven and in a normal circumstance I would have this feeling of being close to the final boss but with what was on the line I felt like I was almost out of time. There wasn’t a sense of accomplishment with each castle; just a sense of dwindling time which made me anxious to keep moving.  
“Calm down man.” Gareth said putting his hand on my shoulder, “We’ll make it I guarantee it!” As he said that it put my mind at ease, having these people by my side made it less stressful and kept me from losing it; I looked over at Alice who was looking up at the castle and taking deep breaths, she was feeling the tension as well. As I looked around Mario and Luigi were also feeling the tension; everyone seemed to be wavering in their courage, everyone except Gareth who stood confidently and seemed unafraid of what we would face. Most people would see him and think that he was crazy for not feeling what everyone else could sense but in this case it was just what we needed; I took a step forward pulling everyone out of their own head and prompting them to follow behind. Having Gareth to stay confident in this situation was good, without that we might have been stuck there for too long; there was no time to waste for us.

We entered the castle and moved through the traps and pits toward the end with ease and came upon the bridge to our last general staring us in the face…we beat him. We made it to the last general before they could take him out! Now all we had to do was get to Bowser and we were assured our victory.  
“Who are you?” The hammer bro general asked holding a hammer skeptical of us.  
“We’re travelers who are trying to stop a traitor in your group from starting a war.”  
“A war?”  
“Yes, three travelers are converging to take you guys out and start a full scale war with the Mushroom kingdom.” He put his hammer down with a relieved sigh and chuckled.  
“Sorry, I just don’t tend to see people come through the castle unless they’re attacking us. I wasn’t expecting a non-hostile person to approach me. Come on over the bridge and we’ll talk.” He seemed very nice for some of the generals I met which was a refreshing difference; as I began to walk I felt Alice grab my collar before I stepped on the bridge.  
“What’s up Alice?” I asked rubbing my throat from the harsh pull of my shirt against my wind pipe.  
“Soren, something’s wrong here. Did you notice what he said?”  
“All he said was that he wasn’t expecting non-hostiles to approach him.”  
“Think about that for a minute.” Non-hostile; wasn’t expecting non-hostile…wasn’t expecting? Alice gave me a nod and we pulled out our weapons.  
“What are you two doing?” Mario asked surprised.  
“I thought we weren’t going to kill the generals?” Luigi added and he was right, we weren’t going to kill the generals…but this wasn’t a general!  
“Why were you expecting hostile people, no one has passed through here which means you shouldn’t be expecting hostilities!” I accused.  
“And even if you were.” Alice began, “I doubt any of Bowser’s men would have lowered their guards as quickly as you did.” The hammer bro went quiet for a minute and then began to laugh; he just kept laughing and soon his laugh became distorted as he turned completely black and changed shape. When it finally reformed Damien was standing across the bridge brandishing his two short swords.

“Too bad, I was hoping to drop you in the pit of lava and be done with this but it seems you’re smarter than I thought you would be.”  
“Can’t fool me twice.” I responded making him laugh.  
“Seems not this time but I don’t think I need to fight this fight, I have this for that.” He quickly jumped off the bridge and snapped his fingers; the ground began to shake and the lava seemed to displace as something rose from the depths. What rose was another giant piranha plant but this one seemed to be immune to the lava and was covered in burning flames that showed no signs of going out, “After you defeated that last plant we had and the blooper we thought that we might need a back-up plant and this one won’t burn to your fire.” It turned in our direction and licked its lips as the fire danced along the inside of its mouth and I was guessing our weapons would melt if we came in contact with it. As it inhaled we all jumped down into the nearby empty pit and watched as a blast of fire flew over our heads.  
“I don’t think we can fight that thing.” Luigi said shivering.  
“We might need to run.” Mario said as his eyes darted around.  
“We can’t get up there without getting blasted by a thousand degrees of flames from a plant that can’t be burned and we can’t cut it without ending up losing our weapons.” Alice pointed out sheathing her weapon as it was useless in our current situation.  
“What if we fight fire with fire!” Gareth said coming up with ideas.  
“It’s immune to fire, we can’t do anything with our current equipment.” …or could we? I pulled out two fire flowers and motioned everyone to do the same; with all of us we had seven fire flowers we could use, “What are you planning?”  
“We’re going to fight fire with fire.” I answered and Alice gave me a confused look, “With these fire flowers we become immune to fire damage and we can transfer that power to our weaponry to enhance fire damage and give it protection against its own intense flames.”  
“But that leaves the wielder open to fire damage which means they get burned to a crisp.” Luigi explained.  
“What if they ate one after another?” Alice asked.  
“Too much time in between to get cooked.” Mario said contemplating the situation.  
“Which is why I’m thinking we have one person for attacking and one for shielding.” I said making everyone look at me in surprise.  
“We send in four people, one for attacking and one for defending. The defenders will take point with the attacker close behind them and when they get close enough both attackers will swing at the stem with all their strength and cut the head from the root destroying it.” They were all listening intently as I explained my plan, “I want the attackers to be brute attackers and the defenders to be someone who is use to fire magic. Mario and Luigi, you have the most experience with fire flowers so I want you two to be the defenders while Gareth you’re one of the attackers.” I turned to Alice who was thinking intently.  
“Sounds like it will work, who’ll be the second attacker?”   
“Either you or me.”  
“I’m better with speed and accuracy; I don’t exactly have a lot of strength.”  
“That’s why I want you to be the other attacker.”  
“What?”  
“I need you to cut at the same place Gareth does so both of you collide in the middle and completely sever the stem. It can reform which means it has to be a quick cut from both sides.”  
“I see, cutting it long way leaves room for it to regenerate but if we cut from both sides we have a better chance of severing it completely.” She gave me a confident smile and nod. Our plan was formulated and ready to go!

Eating their fire flowers Mario and Luigi stood in an orange aura while Alice and Gareth’s weapons were covered in dancing flames; I motioned for them to go and they rushed forward at the creature. The fire piranha plant shoot a beam of fire engulfing everyone but once it disappeared everyone was still moving and burn free, the plan was working! As they moved I watched as two smaller plants rose from the pit of lava next to the big head and dove down the middle going around the defenders and after Alice and Gareth directly; wasn’t expecting that! I grabbed the two remaining fire flowers and shoved them in my mouth as I felt my body heat up as well as my longsword and back up sword. Dashing forward I skid to a halt in the middle of the two smaller piranha plant stems and slashed at the left one and using my free right hand I grabbed for my second longsword and swiped up catching the right stem cutting both before they could burn my team; just in time. I slipped the extra blade back into its hidden sheath and backed up to let the others finish their job. Finally coming close enough the defenders slipped away as the attackers swung with all their might; Glitch hit a point as Alice met that point and they sliced through the stem meeting in the middle as their weapons clashed and the head of the piranha plant fell into the lava silently as it sank.

Giving an exhausted sigh we all took a second to breathe as Damien gave us a sarcastic clap.  
“Bravo, but I expected you to destroy it. Otherwise I would have stayed to watch the weak die and I don’t fight the weak.” He walked toward us slowly as we regained our stamina and pulled up our weapons, “But he was right, you’re stronger than I was expecting…and that makes this much more worth the fight I’m starting.” He raised his weapons ready to attack us and I motioned for Mario and Luigi to back up, this was our fight and it was three versus one but I had a feeling the odds were not in our favor.


	18. Chapter 18 (Lust for Power)

I rushed forward and swung at Damien hoping to get the first strike but he slid back and rushed forward jabbing me in the gut with his hilt; I fell to the ground holding my gut where he hit me and felt his foot collide with my face sending me backwards. Damnit, he was quicker than I expected. As I got up I saw Alice run forward and go for a vertical slice in which he blocked with one of his blade and swing his other blade at her; Alice quickly moved out of range of his attack but he extended his arm and swung it at her sending her back at me. I grabbed her as she collided with me and sent us both back even more; Gareth was next as he swung his axe as faster and faster to gain momentum and charged at Damien. Damien kept backing up as Gareth charged with his barrier of blinding axe swings.  
“Even with that swing ability you’ve got it has two draw backs I’ve noticed.” What was he talking about, “One, your hands are burning just trying to hold onto it.” I looked at Gareth’s hands to see even the back of his hands were starting to turn red, “Two.” Before he finished Damien fell down and put his hand to the ground as he swung his leg tripping Gareth and sending him to the floor, “You have no defense at your feet. One attack and your move ends before you even get to attack.” He raised his sword ready to slice Gareth across the chest, “If you’ve got any moves left I would use them now.” I grabbed my longsword and charged at them intending to swing away the short sword before it hit Gareth; as I swung Damien pulled his other sword to block my blow, “Don’t interrupt, I’ll kill you soon, just wait your turn.” Suddenly I watched as Gareth’s axe swung across Damien’s arm cutting it off.  
“Thanks for the distraction, just what I needed.” Gareth said raising his axe up with one hand.  
“I didn’t expect you to be able to move something that big with that little time.” Damien said calmly as his arm hole continued to bleed profusely.  
“Maybe before I wouldn’t have been able to but with the power mushrooms from this world I can wield that axe without too much effort.” Gareth replied; I looked at his arm to see it was shaking from holding the axe; he was bluffing slightly, he didn’t have enough power to hold it without any effort but he could swing with enough force to take an arm off. I pushed Damien off of him and helped Gareth up as he grabbed his axe with his other hand.  
“Don’t get cocky; I saw your trembling arm there.” I said facing Damien as he stood up.  
“It worked out well though.”  
“True.”   
“Save the spat for after you two.” Damien said giving us a smirk, “I’m not done yet.”  
“Your arm is gone! You really want to keep fighting?” I said pointing my blade at his arm hole; it felt like I was facing the black night from Monty Python’s Holy Grail.  
“Really? Might want to check again.” He began to laugh as his arm hole oozed a black liquid, as it dripped out it seemed to fit into an invisible mold that reached up to his hole; when it reached the hole the ooze solidified and lightened up turning into an arm, he created a new arm, “Having the power of a shapeshifter really makes losing a body part less fatal and so I can keep fighting.” He walked over picking up his second short sword and pointing his right blade at us with a dark grin, “Now let’s see how long you three can last.” Alice got up and stood next to us ready to fight.  
“Any plans you two?” Alice whispered keeping her eye on Damien as he brandished his weapons. Any attacks we employed he could block with one blade and still attack with the other; we would need to all attack if we were going to get any hits in.  
“Two attack from the front while the third attacks from the back, Alice you’re the quickest so I want you to attack from the back and slice him up.” I explained.  
“Are you sure? He might die.”   
“Don’t worry, I don’t want you to go after his vitals, get rid of his arms and legs, Gareth you and I are going to grab his short swords when his arms are severed.” Gareth gave me a nod and we all returned our attention to Damien who was balancing his swords with one finger.  
“Done talking? Good, now let’s do this!” He was cocky but he had no idea what was in store. Alice followed behind as Gareth and I took the front lines; we swung our weapons and Damien blocked with both of his blades; just as planned! I looked behind him to see Alice had already taken up her position and swung at his left arm severing it; as I grabbed his blade and pulled it back I felt the arm give some pull as though it was still attached.  
“What!?” I looked at the cut area to see the black goo had shot out and grabbed the severed arm reattaching it to the body.  
“You expected that to work twice? That last time was for show but now I’m going to have to get serious with you!” Shadows danced on his back making two more arms that grabbed Alice and threw her at us knocking all of us off our feet; he then pulled out two more short swords and swung at us as we rolled back. As I stood up I felt my cheek sliced at and another slice against my chest; as I recoiled from those wounds I felt one against my right arm and again at my left leg, he attacked me four times in under a second with those four blades he had! I staggered up as Alice and Gareth stood worried, “Four slices and you stagger? How can he call you powerful when you can barely take any flesh wounds?” As I panted Alice and Gareth approached Damien swinging at him as he blocked with his front blades and retaliated with his back blades striking Alice in her sword arm and Gareth in his hands making them drop their weapons. Damnit, with four blades it was like fighting general Grievous. As he rose to attack again I moved forward and pulled both of them out of range of his weapons.  
“Damnit! I got carless.” Alice said holding her wounded arm.  
“Hgn! I don’t think I can hold my weapon right now.” Gareth said looking at his hands, they weren’t only burning red at his palms but the knuckles on the back of his hands were sliced open and bleeding.  
“Stay down guys.” I said as I stood up.  
“You can’t take him on alone!” Alice said worried, “He’s got too many blades; you can’t fight someone like that!” She was right, as long as he was carrying those blades I had no way of winning and attacking one arm at a time gave him enough time to reattach his arm…but what if I went after two arms at once?  
“Let’s see how that works.” I rushed forward sheathing my blade and stopped in front of him confusing him.  
“Giving up already? Fine, I’ll give you a fitting death!” He raised all of his blades and swung down at me; I ducked quickly and dashed under his right arm; without my blade in my hand I could move quicker and dodge smoothly, I slid and stood up behind him. As quick as I could I pulled out both my swords and sliced off both of his back arms with all my strength; as they disconnected they fell to the ground and disappeared leaving the short swords. Looks like I was right.  
“So you can’t reattach two at once no matter how much you want to.” He gave me a look of shock and anger as I picked up the two short swords and tossed them away, “And if I had to guess I’d say you can’t fight without a weapon in your hand.” I pointed my left blade at him and gave him a smirk, “So this battle is mine.” He laughed as I stood there keeping my confident look.  
“Can you even fight with two long swords?” He said with a wild look in his eyes.  
“No but as long as you use short swords I get the feeling I’ll have time to get the hand of it!”   
“That’s what I want! Come at me with all your strength! I want to feel the power you hold and bring it to a grinding halt as I end your life!” I rushed at him and swung with my left blade as he dodged to the side, taking his position into account I swung my right blade catching his chest slicing it open, “You seem pretty quick with two longswords, more than expected of even an experienced longsword wielder.”  
“Thank those mushrooms!”  
“Those things are getting annoying, but it makes my job more fun!” He retaliated thrusting both his blades forward; I blocked with my right sword and swung at him with the left blade catching his eye. He staggered backwards holding his eye as I rushed forward to catch him off guard, “Gotcha!” He let go off his eye and sliced at my left arm leaving a gash open; screaming in pain I backed up feeling my body yell in pain. As I felt my sword fall out of my hand I gripped it tightly and held it up shaking, “That’s what I like to see, even under that pain you hold yourself together. This is going to be worth the punishment I face!” He swung with his swords knocking me back as I blocked it with my left blade making pain shoot off as my arm felt the blow.  
“Punishment?”  
“He told me not to kill you but after you defeated the piranha plant I had to see what type of power you really had and I couldn’t pass it up.” He rushed and swung wildly as I switched to block with my right blade, “At first I thought you three couldn’t take me holding back but you could so I increased my power and you could take that, I knew that I couldn’t just let you continue without a chance to take you out. Your power is just too good to pass up.” Pushing him off I swung my left blade across his leg sending him to the ground.  
“Why are you so obsessed with power? You won’t gain anything from beating me!”  
“Satisfaction.”  
“What?”  
“The satisfaction of beating a powerful opponent shows I’ve become powerful and I won’t stop until I stand on top, with his help my dream becomes a reality with each traveler I defeat.” I watched as he cut off his own leg and reattached it standing up without a scratch on his leg, “With the power of a shapeshifter I’m able to shrug off any lost limb and grow stronger with each fight, you are no exception!” He swung at me knocking my left sword back and stabbing me in the stomach.  
“Gah!” I fell to the ground clutching my opened stomach dropping my right blade.  
“I hold the advantage in this battle; my wounds heal quicker than yours.” As he raised his blade I watched as his arms were cut off by an axe and katana and in his moment of shock a katana was pushed through his chest sticking out at me.  
“Only your limbs can heal quickly, the torso is fair game to attack!” Alice said over his shoulder.  
“You forgot about his advantage, us!” Gareth said tossing the two short swords in his hands into the lava. Pulling her katana out Alice rushed to me and shoved a life mushroom into my mouth as Damien staggered backwards clutching his now open chest.  
“I…(Cough) didn’t expect you two to get back up so quickly…fine, this isn’t over though. I will be back!” We watched as he turned into a shadowy shape and disappeared into the shadows of the castle escaping from us.

Feeling my wound disappear I breathed deeply calming myself down as Alice held my head and Gareth beckoned for Mario and Luigi to join us.  
“Took a bit of a gamble there with the two swords.” Gareth said giving me a grin.  
“You don’t even know how to dual wield!” Alice said angry at me.  
“I’ve fought one handed with the longsword before, besides I needed both to be able to counter his dual style, using two longswords I was able to keep both sides open for an attack instead of having to rely on one sword to be able to handle both sides for defense and attacking.” I explained, “If I hadn’t he would have had even more openings to attack me, with two longswords I also had the advantage over his short swords to attack slightly farther back leaving me less open to attacks.” I felt Alice hit me in the head.  
“I didn’t say it was a bad idea I said it was a dangerous one! You had us worried with how confident you were!” Alice retaliated.  
“You were lucky we recovered enough to attack, what if we hadn’t been able to attack?” Gareth said giving me a serious look, “You would have died!”   
“I knew you guys would have my back, I wasn’t worried because I had you two as back up.” I replied grinning, they were my teammates I knew they would be there for me. Alice gave a sigh as Gareth laughed uproariously both of them giving me a smile.  
“We knew you would say that.” Alice replied.  
“Just as I expected.” Gareth said still laughing. I joined in and then we all stood up enjoying the moment to the fullest before we were snapped out of it by Mario.  
“I hate to break up the moment but now the traitor is probably at the princess and Bowser by now. We can’t waste any time!” He was right, this meeting with Damien meant that they were ahead of us and probably at the last castle by now; I picked up my swords and sheathed them heading for the exit. Everyone followed behind as we left the castle of the seventh area to enter the final eighth area and rush towards the castle where our greatest foe still awaited us.


	19. Chapter 19 (Return)

The eighth area was heavily guarded and seemed to be teeming with troops of all different sizes and strengths, it made getting into a fight almost unavoidable and knowing how much strength to use against a certain enemy became a large hassle. It was bizarre, some of the goombas and koopas seemed to be stronger than others that we’ve faced as well as ones they stand next to; I could sense another malicious aura surrounding the area but it was not a strong. Unlike the last time this happened it seemed to only affect a few of the troops while others seemed unaffected; whatever was making this aura was still unfindable, the area was affected from too many different sources for me to find the main cause…damn it!!!  
“Soren, you okay?” I looked to see Luigi was looking at me worried; must have lost it there for a minute.  
“Yeah I’m okay, just a little too focused on something I can’t wrap my head around.” I replied taking a deep breath…I felt angry for a moment but I don’t know why…must have been too focused on the aura that it affected me a little bit.  
“You get too lost in your own mind some times.” Gareth said walking towards us, “You should try not thinking for a little bit. It’s awesome.”  
“Being all brawn and no brain doesn’t really appeal to me Gareth; I don’t think I can do what you do.”  
“Hey, I use my brain! Just not so much that I go into a thought coma like you.”   
“I least I use enough to think ahead! All you do is think where you’re going to swing next!”  
“I least I can get more hits in than you can in the time it takes for you to think up a plan! I could probably take out an enemy in the time you take up!” We both busted out laughing, I can’t explain why…one minute we were insulting each other and then I got the sudden urge to laugh; it didn’t feel like a real argument…kind of felt like jabbing at each other like friends.  
“Hey boys!” We both stopped and turned to Alice who was far in front of us with Mario, “Hate to break the romantic feeling in the air but we should hurry up!” Catching up to them we hurried through the first area and hung our flags from the pole with pride, “We might have a small problem.” Alice pointed to the next area prompting me to look out at it; the entire area was lined with bullet bill launchers and para-troopas with a lakitu waiting for us at the entrance, it was like looking at a gauntlet to hell; Mario style.   
“Jeez!” I said out of instinct at seeing the situation.  
“Yeah, that’s not going to be easy to get through, we’ve got multiple air forces as well as a reinforcement dropper and bullets to top it off.”  
“…So moving as a group is a bad idea.” I said thinking on the situation, in a group mobility becomes tougher as we all have to keep each other safe.  
“What about moving one at a time?” Alice suggested, “It might take a bit but everyone can keep themselves safe.” It was a good idea but-  
“The problem is we still have the boss and possibly Lissa to deal with; if it were just troops from this world I would be less worried but with them still out there it’s better to stay in at least pairs.”  
“As good as that sounds…we have a small problem, our headcount is five…one of us can’t be in a group of two.” So either we move as group with high risk of being damaged or one of us goes solo and risks an attack from the other travelers, “Let’s stay as a group, the odds haven’t been good to us lately.”  
“Let’s move in groups of two.”  
“What! Are you sure?” Alice said surprised and based on her look she knew who would go solo, “I know you’re going to go solo! Stop putting yourself in so much danger.”  
“If I don’t others get hurt instead.  
“But that’s why I’m here! We’re a team, which means your heroics are shared with me, you keep forgetting that when you make these decisions, sometimes I don’t think you even trust me!” She looked hurt; I guess I haven’t been acting like a team player lately; taking on the brunt of fights and going off alone don’t exactly instill trust.  
“…Sorry…I’m just worried that-” She stopped me mid-sentence with her finger.  
“I know why, after that last encounter you don’t want…‘that’ to happen again.” I knew what she was referring to…I don’t want to think about that again, “But you can’t protect everyone on your own, I’m here to help, so let me help.”…she was right…like always.  
“Okay, then I won’t go solo if it will put your mind at ease.”  
“Good! I don’t want to see you die either you know. I’ll go solo while you and Gareth partner with the brothers and go one at a time.”  
“Got it. Be careful Alice.” Even if I was going to let her go alone I couldn’t stop myself from worrying.   
“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Just calm down okay?” She gave me a smile and I felt my worry wash away for a moment.  
“Okay.”

 

Alice  
Good, that worked. Sighing out of relief I watched as Soren walked away towards the boys; he’s had me worried since I’ve known him. Ever since he saved me from a fireball I’ve watched him almost end up dead because of his care for others and all it does is worry me; I know I’m supposed to trust him but even though I trust him more than anyone else I still can’t help but worry every time I see him throw himself into danger, besides I can’t let him do that again…I don’t know why but those creepy travelers are targeting him and I don’t know what to do. Every time we encounter the cloaked guy seems more interested in that Jarek guy inside Soren and it was different each time; the first time I saw him he was beast like and fueled by anger but this time he seemed calmer, still fueled by hate but much more in control of it and that was terrifying to see…and what that guy said last time. He wants to destroy Soren and I won’t let that happen without a fight!  
“Alice, we’re ready to head out.” Gareth said tearing me from my thoughts…great I’m turning into Soren with how lost I got there.  
“Right then.” Moving over I looked at the pairs, Mario and Soren were teamed up while Gareth was paired up with Luigi, I’m guessing Soren suggested pairing up with different brothers to ensure everyone was protected by someone with a weapon, “All right, Soren and Mario you two head out first and then Gareth and Luigi will follow in ten after them I’ll go ten minutes later.”  
“Right!” Everyone replied and Soren and Mario took off first waving as they ran off. I don’t want him pulling any last minute switches so I sent him first.  
“So you’re going by yourself?” Gareth asked me.  
“Yeah, why?”  
“Nothing, I just expected Soren to do that.”  
“I put a stop to that.”  
“Why?”  
“So he doesn’t end up getting attacked alone.”  
“Won’t you just get attacked instead?”  
“Better than him.”  
“Why?”  
“I get the feeling that the cloaked guy is going to try to bring out Jarek again if Soren is on his own and I can’t let that happen.”  
“True but something about the way to bring Jarek out is strange.” What was he talking about?  
“What do you mean?”  
“I know you guys think it is intense rage that brings him out but something doesn’t seem right.”  
“Why do you say that?” Gareth went quiet and lowered his head to think.  
“I’m not sure, just call it a feeling I have. Well, I think it’s time for us to start moving.” Gareth and Luigi passed by and headed off leaving me on my own. What he said…if it’s not intense rage then what is it?

After ten minutes I got started on my own run through the area, dashing and dodging each enemy and projectile with ease as I moved across the tilled path; this was pretty easy but that might have been because I had a specialty at dodging. As I came to the end I jumped onto a pipe and saw the top of the flag pole within eye sight; this was too easy, maybe I was worried for nothing. As I was about to move I felt something wrap around my leg and looked down to see a vine extending from my leg to the pipe; as I moved to pull it off I felt it tug and was shocked as I was pulled down the pipe. Falling into the murky water I felt the vine leave my leg and stood up; the area was dark and the only sources of light were two openings which were the one I was under and a far off one. As I stood there I heard deep raged breathing and quickly drew my katana; using the sign I saw Soren draw I tried to summon a small flame to light my way and watched as a small fire danced on the palm of my hand; pushing it forward I saw two torches on the wall and pushed my hand to send the flame to the torches. As they lit the room I saw in the middle of the room was the giant piranha plant we fought in the fourth area only it seemed to be dying slowly; the roots were green a lively but seemed limp and lifeless as it breathed moving its mouth with each breath. 

It was impossible, we saw this thing burn up but this was definitely the same plant we encountered before, how did it come back!? As I approached the creature its vines shot out grabbing me at my arms and legs restraining me; crap, I can’t move at all! It slowly raised its head and inhaled as a bright ball of fire formed in its mouth, positioning my blade I flipped it in my hand and swung towards my arm cutting the vine trapping that hand and quickly cut the other vines freeing myself and rolled out of the way of the oncoming fireball; this thing was going to need another burning to take it down! I reached into my pouch to grab a spare fire flower and found nothing inside; that’s right, we used all of them during the fire piranha plant fight, I don’t have any left! I felt another vine curl around my weapon arm and dropped my katana as it rubbed against my arm leaving a burn; the vine pulled me off my feet by my arm leaving me unable to do anything except flail. It inhaled again and I could feel the intense heat buildup in the small underground room; I struggled with all my strength but I couldn’t do anything, I had no weapon and my magic wasn’t strong enough to harm the creature. Was this my punishment for trying to save Soren…maybe I shouldn’t have tried to save him…I tried to do exactly what he was going to do and that was my mistake…I tried to take his burden on myself but we should have shared it instead…too bad I wasn’t able to take on your burden Soren.  
Suddenly I heard a crash and felt my body fall to the ground, when I opened my eyes I saw someone standing on top of the piranha plant cloaked head to toe and wielding a large scythe; I was just saved by this person. I watched as the piranha plant began to move and the cloaked ally jumped off and handed my katana to me; without saying a word they moved their gloved hand over my blade and I watched as my blade was covered in a layer of ice and looked over to see they swung their scythe doing the same to their blade. The next second they rushed off and swung as two vines came at them and turned them to ice as they crumbled; I quickly swung to my left catching the vine that came at me and watched as it did the same; seems we had to put it on ice instead. We quickly dispatched of the vines and as I finished up I looked over to see the head was charging up a fireball at my ally and quickly pushed them out of the way. As the fireball came at me I swung my ice blade and watched as the fireball dissipated and my ice turned to steam cloaking the area; as I was lost in the steam I heard a gust of wind and the swing of a blade that seemed to chill the room and clear the mist. As it cleared I saw the cloaked figure with their scythe indented into the creature as the ice spread from the blade to the entire body freezing it completely; as they pulled the blade out the creature fell apart chunk by chunk leaving a small pile of ice. 

I sheathed my blade as their scythe disappeared inside their cloak; I approached them and they turned to me quickly.  
“Thank you for saving me.” They quickly shook their head and made some hand gestures to tell me something; they made a small line of ice in one hand and a small fire in the other and collided them creating a small mist…I think they were thanking me for saving them from the fire ball earlier, “It’s only because you gave my blade the ability to use ice so I stand by my thanks.” They gave a small laugh that was feminine indicating they were female, “Who are you?” She seemed shocked by this question and held out her finger telling me to wait; she made a small sign with her hand and made a purple mist that was familiar, wasn’t this a sleep mist? …oh crap!

Soren  
We all waited for Lice to catch up with us but she hadn’t shown up for twenty minutes and I was starting to worry; what if she was hurt or in danger, I should have gone back to join her!  
“Calm down man, your foot could break a sewing machine pedal.” Gareth said trying to calm me down; I looked down to see my foot tapping impatiently, “She’ll show up, she’s one tough chick.” He was right about that, she was the toughest girl I’ve ever met but that didn’t stop me from worrying.   
“Hey, who’s that?” We looked up to where Luigi was pointing and saw a cloaked person standing at the top of the stairs; in their arms was Alice who was passed out; are they with the cloaked boss? I pulled out my sword as they jumped down, I looked behind me to see Gareth had pulled out his axe and the bros had pulled out wooden hammers. The cloaked person approached us calmly and set Alice down in front of me; they then backed up and gave a small bow…had they saved Alice? Sheathing my sword I returned the bow.  
“I don’t know what happened but thank you for saving Alice from…whatever happened.” The figure seemed to back up shyly and looked away trembling; quickly collecting themselves they gave a nod and walked away from us; when I blinked they were gone in an instance. I don’t know who they were but I’m glad they helped out, I was worried about Alice; I looked down to see Alice was opening her eyes.  
“Ngh! …Soren!” She shot up and looked at me with shock, “Where did the cloaked person go? I didn’t find out who they were!” She looked around franticly searching for that cloaked person.  
“They left but they dropped you off here, you had me worried you know.” I said catching her attention; she looked down sadly.  
“I know…but now I have a new rule you have to follow.”  
“What…what is it?”   
“No one goes anywhere on their own, we’re a team so we stick together no matter what. Got it?” She gave me a stern look; something happened during that solo trek…but I think whatever happened was for the better…for both of us.  
“Got it.” I helped her up and Gareth walked over putting his arms around both of us.  
“You two have been really weird lately, but you’ve got to get excited, out journey is almost over, after the next area we hit the castle and save the princess as well as the land itself!” He was right, nothing seemed to faze Gareth lately but maybe that was because he had no reason to worry with people by his side, he didn’t have to worry about shouldering anyone else’s problems because they seemed small being in a team. I suppose he was the best example of our unity, he trusted our judgment and knew we would do well in the end…maybe that’s why he wasn’t worried about what would happen at the end of it all; no matter what we face he was ready to trust us to pull him through and I was sure he could do the same for us, “We’re near the end so let’s give it our all!” He was right, we were at the final stretch and we had to give it our all, we can’t give up this choice; we’re so close that now it was our duty to finish the job. The cloaked man wanted to engage in another round of us against him and we weren’t going to lose this round either.  
“Let’s go everyone!”


	20. Chapter 20 (Castle siege)

As I looked out at the third area I was surprised to see a town across the entire area leading up to the castle; entering the town I saw an arc above the entrance that identified the town as Toad town, the entrance opened to a town square with a fountain in the center and Bowser’s troops patrolling the area. Deciding not to get into a big scuffle we moved through the smaller alleyways and areas where the troops were not converging in; eventually we made it to Mario and Luigi’s home.  
“Our house is okay!” Luigi exclaimed excited, the house was still in one piece and seemed to be in general good shape.  
“Were you a carpenter at one point Mario?” I asked the now plumber.  
“For a little bit, but I went into business with my brother as a plumber. It’s actually not that bad.” Mario replied proudly.  
“You couldn’t pay me to work in a sewer.” Alice said scowling at her past experience in underground water ways.  
“I was just noticing that your home is in very good upkeep compared to some of the other places we passed.” I said praising his handy work, it was actually very clean and neatly with a sign above the door to indicate it was their house. Luigi rummaged around in his pockets until he pulled out a small key and stuck it into the door turning it and opening the entrance to their home; the inside seemed untouched and everything was organized and neatly placed, the only thing out of place was the cold meal on the table that seemed to be stiff and stale.  
“We never got a chance to eat when we heard of Bowser and his men on their way, well…I guess it would have been me and the shapeshifter who would have eaten this.” Luigi said sadly as he put the food into the nearby trash and put the plates into the sink, meanwhile Mario disappeared into the back room and I could hear him rummaging through all manner of items for something.  
“So this is a home. It looks nice.” Gareth said running his hand along the walls of the house.  
“Haven’t been in one in quite a few years.” Alice said as she held one of the framed pictures in her hand; Gareth had this longing in his eyes while Alice had a face of nostalgia as they both looked around the house. As far as I was concerned it was like being in another house but maybe that’s because I was always at home, hold up in my room but still had somewhere to call my home…I think…it was hard to call it home when you dreaded going there every day because of the people inside it. 

Eventually Mario came back out with a bag and set it down on the table, as he opened it the first thing that caught my attention was the blue fire flower that poked out of the top; inside were items from all different generations of Mario games. There were the mushrooms and fire flowers but also ice flowers, tanuki suits, capes, frog suits and even things I’ve never seen before; this was an arsenal of power that I couldn’t have guessed that Mario had at his house.  
“Lucky for us that the shapeshifter never found this bag, now we have a leg up in a fight!” Mario said as we rummaged through the bag of items to stock up for our fight at the castle; I grabbed a fire flower and ice flower along with a cape feather if needed. Alice grabbed an ice flower and tanuki suit leaf with a poison mushroom for some reason; Gareth took a tanuki suit leaf and cape feather and finished it off with a mega mushroom. Mario decided to go with three caps, one with wings, one made of metal and one that was see through; Luigi had more exotic choices, he grabbed a vacuum and a fire and ice flower to top it off, I think it was safe to say we were ready to move towards the castle.  
“All right, we’ve got what we need so let’s head to the castle.”  
“Right!” Everyone replied; we left the house and Luigi locked up the place so no one would try to break in.  
“So where are we headed next?” Luigi asked as he stuffed the key back into his pocket, as I looked around for our next path I noticed Gareth’s sight was fixed on a building not far off from us.  
“You okay Gareth?” I asked, suddenly he bolted towards that building leaving us behind.  
“What is he doing?” Alice asked shocked as he entered the building.  
“I don’t know but let’s follow him.” We rushed after him and came up to the building; the building was run down and had some boarded up windows and walls with cracks along them, “What is this building?” I asked Mario.  
“This is the orphanage where toads without parents are raised.” Orphanage!?  
“Orphanage!?” Alice exclaimed surprised; but that means-

We both rushed in to see the place was crawling with vines that kept moving and twisting; there were piranha plant here!? The heads of the plants eventually showed themselves and began to attack us; Alice and I dispatched of the plants as quick as we could and started searching room to room for Gareth. Every room we searched was empty and devoid of anything except for the vines that seem to line every wall of every inch of the orphanage, examining the vines they all seem to move in one direction. We followed it to a back room to see a group of toad children surrounded by piranha plants and they were being protected by Gareth; he looked exhausted and ragged, he must have been fighting a lot of them. We rushed in and helped him with the large group he was facing eventually taking care of all of them, we all took a moment to breath and then Gareth threw his axe on the ground.  
“Gareth what’s wrong?” I asked concerned at his above brash actions.  
“What the hell is going on here!?” Gareth asked pulling me by my collar, “This is the world of Mario right? This is a world different from our own with the people who are here, the laws it governs and the magic it holds right!?” He looked pissed as he screamed at me, “So why is my orphanage here!?”  
“Your orphanage?” There was no way this was his orphanage, it couldn’t be!  
“I’d know it anywhere, the minute I saw this building I knew it was exactly my orphanage, the fact that it’s my orphanage makes this weird but what I hate is that it’s even here!” He let go slowly and his arms sulked to his sides, “This world is supposed to be savable and I’m supposed to be able to save it.” He clenched his fists and began to shake, “But if there is an orphanage then how can I save everyone! These kids can’t have their life be any better than this. Why does this place exist?!” He was speaking so passionately and angrily it was like he was seeing his worst fear become real…it may have been actually.  
“Gareth, I know you think that this was a new chance at something along those lines but the fact is that there is no difference between your world and this world.” He gave me a shocked look, “No matter how many worlds you visit there will always be ones that have problems similar to ours.”  
“He’s right.” Alice interjected, “You can’t run from your problems no matter how far you go. Heroes can’t save everyone. No matter how hard they try.” Alice finished.  
“Um…excuse me.” We all looked down to see one of the orphans looking up at us, “T…thank you for saving us.” He said giving us a big smile.  
“Your welcome but make sure that you stay hidden until all of this is over okay?” I said making sure they would stay safe. Then I heard a grumbling coming from his stomach, “Here, make sure everyone gets some food okay?” I handed him the rest of the food I had and Alice and Gareth did the same.  
“Thank you, I’ll watch over everyone until everything goes back to normal!” He said as he rushed back to the group handing out food to everyone.  
“You sure that was smart?” Alice asked, “We gave them the rest of our food.”  
“We don’t need it; we’re headed to the castle and finishing up this adventure soon. Besides they need it more than we could ever need it.” I heard foot steps behind us and saw Gareth walk away leaving the orphanage building.

We caught up and watched as Gareth stopped in front of Mario.  
“Mario, make me a promise, once this is all over I want you to fix this building up and give these kids a decent place.” Gareth said pointing at the disheveled building.  
“You’ve got it.” Mario replied giving him a thumbs up, “We’ll make this building our first priority.”  
“Thanks.” Gareth said with a soft smile, this was something he cared about a lot; I guess he had his reason. Once that was cleared up we all decided that we couldn’t waste any more time and headed straight for the castle with all we could. Eventually we stood in front of princess Toadstool’s castle; it was a bright white castle that seemed even more regal than the last seven we encountered, this was definitely the princess’s castle.

We entered the castle to find it was less hostile than any of the others, there was an elegant interior with stairs leading to the throne room meaning just beyond that door was Bowser and Peach waiting for us. I pushed open the double doors and entered the large room to see a path to the throne where Bowser was sitting with Peach at his side and the cloaked man facing them.  
“The mushroom kingdom has retaliated!?” Bowser said shocked.  
“That’s impossible; my subjects would never do that!” Peach said with confidence and regal attitude.  
“As much as I hate to admit it they have already taken out your generals at each post.” The boss replied.  
“What!? My men…this cannot stand!” He stood up and turned to Peach, “This is a decleration of war Toadstool!”   
“Do you truly wish to start a war Koopa king?” Peach replied keeping her cool, “I warn you this will not end well.”  
“Then let it be-”  
“STOP!” I shouted as we rushed towards the three, “This man is lying to you! He’s been the one taking out your generals!” I declared pointing at the cloaked man.  
“So you made it, but I expected that, now you accused me of betraying my commander but where is your proof?” Damnit, without the two generals I saved I had no evidence yet, “Nothing? Fine then, Bowser these people are the ones who have killed your generals and the proof is that they stand with the two from the mushroom kingdom.”

“What!?” He was accusing us, “That’s a lie!”  
“Well then where did you find those two? Last I heard they were prisoners, the only way they could be here is if you killed the general and freed them.” We had no way of defending ourselves, where were his two generals!?   
“He let them go when we convinced him of your betrayal!”   
“Where is your proof?” All I could do was defend myself with words but that wasn’t going to be enough, “If you would allow me I will take care of these enemies while you work on getting the troops ready for war Bowser.” Bowser gave a nod as he grabbed the princess and started moving.  
“Crap! Mario, Luigi stop him but don’t hurt him!” I directed to Bowser as Mario and Luigi headed to stop him leaving the three of us with the cloaked guy.  
“So here we are again, you really think you can stop me this time?”  
“I know we can!” We all pulled out our respective weapons and he laughed.  
“We’ve played this game before and it didn’t end well last time either, are you sure about this?”  
“As long as you intend to harm these people then yes!” I gave him a determined look and he chuckled.  
“Every time I encounter you I’m amazed to see how determined you are. No matter though because no matter how determined you are you’re still going to lose to me with how weak you are!” He pulled out the buster sword from earlier and came at us; I quickly blocked him with my longsword and pulled out my second blade adding its strength and pushed him back, sheathing it I rushed forward catching him off guard and swung at him; he caught on and backed up but I was able to catch his cloak and slash through part of it, “I will admit you’ve gotten better and that extra blade seems to give you a new angle.” He rushed at me swinging the buster sword with one hand like it was nothing and almost catching me of not for Alice and Gareth blocking his last swing, “But that’s child play compared to my strength.” Regaining my composer I pulled my other longsword back out, I was going to need every trick up my sleeve to beat him.  
“Guys don’t hold back on whatever you’ve got!” Alice and Gareth gave me a nod as we all got ready for a three on one fight.

I pulled out my feather and crushed it in my hand as it glowed, when the light died I was wearing a cape and I felt my senses quicken; I rushed forward feeling my feet fly off the ground at blinding speed and swung at him as he blocked and as our blades collided I brought my other blade and swung up across his chest catching him and making him stumble. As he stumbled I moved behind him and kicked him sending him staggering forward; Gareth caught him and sliced down at his arm connecting and causing him to bleed as Alice took this moment to cut along his back. We got him down!  
“I’ll admit you three seem to be better than the last time we fought.” He stood up straight and shook off Gareth and Alice as he brushed himself off, “You still don’t have the strength to take me on for real though!” I watched as he raised his hands up, “Heal!” a green light washed over him and left no visible wound of our damage. “You want to stop me then you’re going to need more than that!” Suddenly he disappeared in a blur and then I felt a force collide with my back knocking me down and I watched as the same thing happened with Alice and Gareth; getting back on my feet I quickly scanned the room for him but only saw a blur move from point to point too quickly to stop. I pulled out a fire flower and consumed it as I waited for his next move; I closed my eyes and waited to sense him from wherever he would show up. Point to point to point, focus Soren  
…  
…  
…Now! I pushed the fire power I had at all corners creating a small barrier and smirked as the boss was caught inside; I pushed my blade into his arm as he tried to block and watched as it was burned leaving a cauterized stab wound, “Impressive, I’m guessing you know that I can’t heal cauterized wounds.”  
“Took a hunch.” I replied as he laughed.  
“Very interesting but do you really think all your tricks can stop me?”  
“No, not all my trick.” Alice and Gareth stood up standing at my side, “All our tricks!” I threw a fireball as Alice and Gareth rushed at him; he deflected the fireball as Alice and Gareth swung at him catching his abdomen and chest as I shot another fireball cauterizing both new marks. The next moment Alice pulled out her poison mushroom and shoved it down his throat as he recoiled from the wounds. He fell to the ground on one knee as he coughed and Gareth brought his axe down on his back.  
“I think he’s had enough.” Gareth said as he and Alice regrouped with me. Something wasn’t right; it was like he was holding back…but why? Suddenly Bowser came crashing through and fell on the throne; I looked at the entrance to see Mario and Luigi panting as they held out their hammers.  
“He put up a bit of a fight but he’s not going to stop at this war!” Mario said panting wildly.  
“Then there’s only one way to stop this.” The cloaked man said standing up unaffected by our recent barrage of attacks, “If the Koopa King doesn’t want to give up then there’s only one thing to do and that’s take him out.” Take him out!? Suddenly a barrier came up and pushed me and Alice backwards from Gareth, “And only a hero can do that.” We looked up to see a small barrier surrounding Gareth the boss and Bowser, “Gareth, I’m giving you your chance, take out the Koopa King and become the hero of the Mushroom kingdom and if you become a hero here you can be a hero in dozens of worlds, saving damsels and stopping villains.” This was his plan!? This entire adventure was a ploy to recruit Gareth? I should have known, he was bringing this brink for a war to get Gareth to join him!  
“Gareth, don’t fall for it!” I shouted banging against the barrier; I don’t think he could hear me though, this was bad!

Gareth  
Bowser lied there defenseless, one swing from my axe could probably finish him off and I would be a hero and then my adventure would take me to other worlds if I joined him; I would be praised and respected and loved…but do I want that? After this whole adventure with Soren and Alice I’ve been questioning what being a hero is all about; Soren is one of the most heroic people I’ve met but he doesn’t want to be one, he always says to let those who belong in this world be the hero but why? Why should they be the hero when I want to, all I want is a chance to be a hero and this is it!  
“You can’t run from your problems no matter how far you go.” Alice said those words to me…why am I remembering them now? I’m trying to be a hero so I’m not running, I’m facing up to them and…and…and…what am I doing this for? What will this solve? All I want is someone to care about me and heroes have people who care about them…but-  
“You wanted someone to care about you, well you’ve got one.” …Soren…and Alice said that to me, but if I do this I lose them…but in return I become a hero. I lifted my axe over Bowser…and swung backwards cutting the cloaked guys left arm right off.  
“What!?” He exclaimed as blood sprayed from his arm hole.

Soren

The barrier broke as the cloaked guy fell to the ground now missing his right arm, Gareth had cut it clean off; it was amazing to watch him cut through skin and bone without any resistance, as though it were natural.  
“All I wanted was for people to care about me, to acknowledge that I was important to them and thanks to this adventure I know have two people who do just that! So no matter what happens, no matter what world I’m in it makes no difference, I will not betray them for my own selfish reasons!” He slung his axe over his shoulder and gave a cocky grin, “Besides, if I kill him then a riot will ensue and those orphans might get hurt, I sure as hell won’t let that happen!”  
“Neither will we.” We looked at the door way to see Spike and the blooper general standing there; they were finally here, “Lord Bowser, we are here to inform you that the traveler there has betrayed us and taken out the other generals of your army, all to start a war between our army and the Mushroom Kingdom!” Finally, our aces were here and we had him beat.  
“So you betrayed us.” Bowser stood up with an angry look in his eyes, “How dare you!” He let out a monstrous roar and a jet stream of fire consumed the boss, he stood up and swung dissipating the fire.  
“Looks like my plan failed here, I’ll just have to revise for the future.” He’s going to try this again!? Not if I can help it! I pulled out my ice flower and ate it quickly channeling the magic into my blade as I stabbed into his leg as it froze in place.  
“You’re not going to get a chance to!” I exclaimed as the ice spread up his leg; I pulled out my other blade and stuck it into his foot as that began to ice over as well.  
“You know…” he gave a long sigh, “You’re really starting to get on my nerves!” He broke the ice as a strange aura pounded off his body; he then lifted his foot and kicked me in the face sending me reeling back. As I stood up I could feel my mouth fill with my own blood; I coughed and watched as a tooth fell out, he had a powerful kick, “This is the second time you’ve interfered with my recruiting and I’m getting sick of it happening because of you. The next time we cross in battle I’m going to take what I want and destroy you completely!” After he said that he faded away slowly giving me a grim look that chilled me to the bone.  
“Soren! Are you okay?” Alice asked running over with a worried look, “That was crazy, why did you try that?”  
“I couldn’t let him get away, looks like he has more to him than we thought.” I replied.  
“You’ve got that right.” Gareth said walking over to us, “He’s way more dangerous than I gave him credit for before.” Alice pulled out a life mushroom and shoved it into my mouth as I tasted it along with my own blood; swallowing it I felt the inside of my mouth stop bleeding and gave a sigh of relief as princess Toadstool entered the room.  
“King Koopa.” Peach said catching Bowser’s attention, “It’s clear we have been deceived by the same person so I must ask that we find a peaceful way to resolve this matter please.”  
“I agree, this has obviously been a bigger matter than either of us could understand, once we have figured out what happened I believe we shall figure out the proper way to resolve this issue.” Bowser replied, “I’d also like to hear a testimony from our saviors over there.” He pointed to the five of us.”  
“Actually, I think you’ll get more from Mario and Luigi then us three.” I said pointing to the brothers, this was there spot light to take after all, they had all the info to end this petty struggle on their own…besides, we had our own matter to take care of.  
“I would still like to thank you.” Peach came over to us and gave a small bow, “Thank you for saving us from a terrible war. You have my deepest gratitude.” She still had an air of elegance and regality that made it clear she was a ruler, “When this is settled we should all have tea together.” As she said that she gave us a sweet smile and now gave an aura of sweetness and innocence; it was like seeing someone completely change personality on a dime, I suppose she held a façade when dealing with adversity; at least she stayed tough and sweet at the same time. As they all left Mario and Luigi gave us a firm handshake of solidarity and left the three of us in the throne room alone.  
“So what now?” Gareth asked confused about our next step.  
“Now we should be transported back to our world any minute.” Alice said sitting down, “So just wait.”  
“Yep. We just have to wait.” I decided to sit down as well, I felt exhausted; each adventure wasn’t truly exhausting me until I sat down at the end of it. It was like every time it was over the weight of every fight left me slowly as I rested.  
“Hey guys.” Gareth caught our attention, “Were do you live?” He wanted to know where we lived? That was strange, “You guys are my friends now and someone I don’t want to lose contact with so I want to find you guys again no matter what. If it’s possible I’m going to meet you two again, got it?” He gave us a toothy grin…guess I’ll take my chances again.  
“I’ll give you a place to meet us, don’t forget it okay?”  
“I won’t, I promise you that!” I told him the address of the hospital and then gave him Alice’s room number. After that he gave a hearty laugh.  
“What’s so funny?” Alice said feeling insulted.  
“It’s nothing, I’ll see you guys again, count on it!” Suddenly a bright light enveloped all of us blinding me as everything turned white.

 

As I woke up I was back at home in my bed; looking at the clock it was twelve in the afternoon the next day, looks like I woke up on the day after I left. Grabbing my jacket and gloves I headed out the door and rushed towards the hospital to meet up with Alice; as I ran there I found myself passing by areas quicker than I remember. Looks like I got tougher again. Eventually I came upon the hospital and rushed up to Alice’s room. Entering the room I saw Alice brushing her hair, not even noticing I entered.  
“97, 98, 99, 100. There.” Setting the brush down she looked up at the doorway to see I had entered the room; her face turned scarlet as she stared at me.  
“You…you brushed your hair.” She picked up her pillow and threw it at my face.  
“Knock next time you idiot!” Alice screamed her face turning redder, “I decided I’d give it another try…can’t avoid everything…” I looked at her hair to see it was straightened and neatly brushed, usually it’s wild and unkempt but…  
“It looks nice.” I said giving her a smile.  
“Th-thanks.” She gave me a shy smile as she said that.  
“Yo, what’s happening in here?” That voice! I turned around to see Gareth standing there with a big goofy smile on his face.  
“Gareth!” I exclaimed surprised by him being here.  
“How did you get here so quickly!?” Alice asked shocked by his appearance as well.  
“My orphanage home is actually in Denver so one bike ride and I’m here in about an hour!” He replied. It was good to see him again, I didn’t know when we would see him again but I was hoping it would be soon…didn’t expect this though. We all laughed as we enjoyed the light air of friendliness that was I the room; it was good to have another friend.

…But that cloaked guy, he was still on my nerves, I had to find out more about travelers. Why they are able to move from one world to another, why they are able to retain their strength from one world to the next despite retaining no injuries, who was sending travelers to different worlds and why the cloaked guy wanted to recruit others onto his side. So far I’ve been on two adventures and haven’t found any answers and if I had to guess this wasn’t the end of our adventures. I turned back to Gareth and Alice who were in some kind of argument.  
“I don’t care how much you try to explain it Gareth, it is still a pain in the ass level to beat you clod!”  
“And I’m going to show you that it’s the easiest level ever made.”  
“I’m going to rip you apart you gloating bastard!” They were fighting over a level in a game? No matter, I guess for now I should just enjoy the time with my friends, I’ll have plenty of time to research travelers later. After all I went through hell for my friends, time to enjoy my time with them to the fullest!


	21. Extra Chapter 1 (Lissa 2)

I dreamt of it again last night. I was standing in a room and there were windows on all walls; to the north the window was cracked and beyond that there was a coffin on the other side, to the south was a dirty window with a strange monstrous shadow, to my left was a crystal clear widow that shinned to the room beyond, the last window was tinted two different color; on top was a pristine white color while the bottom was a deep crimson red that seemed to be blending into the white almost overwhelming it. On the inside was the figure of a female but as I continued to look the figure seemed to shift and then sprout large bat wings that caused me to recoil in shock; I fell back to the clear window and on the other end I could see a bright figure of a boy on the other end. I knew that figure, it was someone I’ve known all my life and I would see again once this is all over; the figure turned around and their bright red hair turned brown as his clothes changed to a black jacket and red shirt with blue jeans. It was…Soren!?

I woke up with a startle as I lifted myself from my bed and looked around; I was in my room at the bosses’ base and my face was covered in my own sweat; I wasn’t expecting Soren there. (Seems he’s more troublesome than I thought.) What do you mean? (He broke my hold over you and he defeated the boss. Now he’s haunting our dreams.) Not haunting our dreams, he’s just stuck in my mind. (That’s not good, he’s the reason I lost control.) That was good for me. (But even so, seems he’s got something interesting we don’t know about.) What do you mean? (The boss has been fixated on him since the last encounter. Have you noticed how he laughed hysterically after he came back with that large slash wound over his stomach?) It’s true…but I don’t think that matters anymore, we won’t see them again. (I wonder…)

After I had been freed from the binds of the power I was controlled by, the consciousness lingered and spoke to me, it tried to convince me to give in again but I knew better…that power wasn’t worth it, and I don’t know what he would think of it…(Stop talking about him! He’s dead!) No, I’ll see him again, that’s why I’m here. (Fine, live in your world for all I care.) I walked around and looked at every traveler we had, they all had the same glazed over look in their eyes that sent chills down my spine, was I like that before? (Yes you were. Then again I was the one in control.) So everyone looks like that because they’re being controlled? (Not exactly, let’s just say power is intoxicating and once it’s inside you the world becomes simpler and that power tears what was you apart leaving only that power to take the reins.) It’s creepy…would I have become that? (Not that quickly though, those are just lower tier creatures that control these husks of human creatures. I’m smarter than them, even being severed from the host I survive.) So if the human takes control again then the power will die? (They don’t have the strength to survive a forced severing from the host.)…Why does he do this? (Ever heard the term dogs are better than soldiers, husks that follow are what we need, not soldiers.) We? What’s your connection to all this? (Sorry but that’s my secret to hold onto, let’s just say that I’ve known him longer than you know.)…This is uncomfortable, everyone is looking at me; they all turned their heads and stared without blinking. Deciding food wasn’t worth this I grabbed a bagel and headed back to my room ignoring the stares being thrown my way; I kept my head down and suddenly bumped into someone falling back. (Look where you’re going.) I looked up to see a black haired boy standing there and looking down at me, his eyes weren’t glazed over meaning his power hadn’t taken over; he helped me up and I dusted my shorts off.  
“Sorry about that. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”  
“It’s okay.” He replied giving me a simple smile, “What’s your name?”  
“I’m…Lissa. What’s your name?”  
“I’m called Damien, just joined a few days ago.” He clenched his fist and I saw a grin on his face, “Now, I can get stronger!” I recoiled slightly in fear. (Interesting.) The next second I heard a small bell ding and someone came onto the intercom system.  
“Would Damien come to the bosses’ office as soon as possible?”  
“Gotta go now, see ya later.” He ran away and left me to absorb his first impression, he seemed intense and it wasn’t a normal intense; it was almost…malicious. (I could taste the anger emanating from him…aww it was delicious.) How do you taste his emotion? (We succubae not only steal physical energy from others but also their emotional energy but with how much was coming off him I wouldn’t have the time to get all of it.) Physical energy? (You know…every man needs a woman to do it.) I felt my face heat up at that comment figuring out what she meant by that. (Aren’t you seventeen? I’m sure you’ve-) No! Never! (Too bad for you…it’s great.) Let’s move on from this topic; so what did you mean by anger? (He’s harboring some deep anger that seems to consume him, I’ve seen it before but this one seems to be a different case.) Weird…(It’s not our problem though, let’s head back to the room.) I guess…I’m still worried.

 

It’s been a few weeks but that dream keeps occurring over and over again every night and it doesn’t change, the four windows and the clear one leads to him who then changes to Soren at the end…it scares me but I don’t know why. (You’re just paranoid.) I don’t know, it scares me in my dream but I don’t know why; what if it means something? (I doubt it means anything.) As I contemplated this thought with her I listened as the speaker system chimed.  
“Would Lissa please report to the bosses’ office?” He wants me? It’s been a few weeks since our failed mission and I don’t know if I can look him in the eye after breaking free from the succubus, he’ll know somethings up…(Just let me control you and everything will work out.) No! I won’t let you in again! Deciding that this inner argument wasn’t worth it I headed into the bosses’ office and felt the room grow cold as I walked in slowly; next to the desk stood Damien who turned to the door and then gave me a wicked grin. His eyes were clear showing he was still in control, relieved I walked next to him and then the chair swiveled around showing the boss.  
“I’m glad you’re both here, Damien I would like to thank you for your work in starting the fire in the mushroom kingdom and getting the war started.”  
“My pleasure, it took a while but I was able to get the goombas to go for Bowser’s army.” So the next world is Mario? (Looks like it, nothing but fat plumbers and mushroom people there; boring.)  
“Lissa, I’m giving you a chance to redeem yourself from before. We are after a young man who has traveled to this world, I’m sending Damien to survey him and I want you on back-up. When he calls then you report to him, got it?”  
“Yes sir!” I said standing straight, he wasn’t too happy with how I failed last world; before I went on most recruitment missions but since I lost to Soren and Alice I wasn’t called at all…at least until now. (Hmmm…) After getting our orders I left the office and headed back to my room to wait it out; looking over footage didn’t make me feel better and the other travelers always gave me weird stares, it was like they knew I wasn’t being controlled. (…Hey Lissa?) What’s up? (Can we go look over some footage?) What, why? (There’s something about Alice I can’t put my finger on…it’s tearing me up and I don’t know why.) I don’t know, she seemed kind of mean but I didn’t sense anything weird. (Me either but there’s something weird about her.) Deciding to give this a chance we looked over any data we could gather on Alice that was gathered from multiple reports.

Name: Alice Blair (Alias: Asuna)  
Gender: Female  
Ethnicity: Caucasian   
Age: 17  
Height: 5ft. 7in.  
Weight: 132 lbs.  
Chest: 20.6 cm.  
Cup Size: B  
Weapon Preference: Sword  
Connections: Steven Blair, Mary Blair, Soren Thain*  
World Traveled: Hyrule (Legend of Zelda)  
Personality: Very cold upon first impressions but becomes more caring to her friends and loved ones over time. Does not display affection outright and instead becomes flustered and violent. (A.K.A. Tsundere.)   
Personal Trauma: Born as an excitable child she was taken to the hospital at four; they determined her unfit to walk and she has spent thirteen years in the hospital. Over time she saw herself as weak and once she was taken to the world of Hyrule she abandoned her old self and tried to absorb herself as another person. She scorned her actual self and tried to deny that she was that person ever before.  
Recruitment Technique: Bring her connection to light breaking her will and convince her of a chance to destroy the weak self she scorns.  
Success Rate: 0%= Failure to Recruit*

*-See file: Soren Thain

(Seems that she’s cold on the outside and warm on the inside.) Tsundere…(They really did their research on this girl, even her cup size is here.) It was true; when the boss researched a person he did extensive background checks, there was even a full scale report of her time in Hyrule and everything she did while there. It was like looking into someone’s soul and everything they were about. (We should check Soren’s file next, we might find more info about Alice in that.) True, it did point us to his file. After searching through the S pile of files I found one marked ‘Soren’

Name: Soren Thain (Alias: None)  
Gender: Male  
Ethnicity: Caucasian  
Age: 17  
Height: 5ft. 9in.  
Weight: 145 lbs.  
Chest: 15in.  
Cup: None  
Weapon Preferred: Longsword   
Connections: Susan Thain, Robert Thain, Jennifer Thain, Alice Blair*  
Worlds Traveled: Hyrule (Legend of Zelda)  
Personality: Outgoing and trusting, willing to believe others until proven otherwise and will put his life on the line for those he cares about. Deep thinker usually getting absorbed in his own thoughts until someone snaps him out of it; very influential when gaining someone’s trust able to give them faith in him and giving his faith in return. His other personality-*2  
Personal Trauma: Growing up he was always on the short stick as his older sister’s selfish personality made him take up the mantle of strength in order to keep others sane; when around others he will act strong in order to avoid others worrying about him putting their problems above his and pushing them down. Eventually-*2  
Recruitment Technique: Break his façade apart leaving him weak and vulnerable then give him the opportunity to create a stronger self who can keep his problems from being found out and keep others from worrying about him. Bring out-*2  
Success Rate: 0% Failure to Recruit. (Through his high influence he was able to stop us from recruiting Alice Blair.)

*-See file: Alice Blair  
*2-Information removed by Boss for study

Pieces of information were missing from Soren’s file, seems there are pieces that the boss needs to research. (Or maybe there are pieces of info he doesn’t want others to know.) Why would he do that? (Everyone has a reason, but more importantly we didn’t find any info about Alice we didn’t already know, besides weight and bra size.) Somethings are better not to know. (Why are you embarrassed? You beat her there.) How do we keep ending up on this topic? (I am a succubus after all.) Looking through Soren’s file more it seemed almost bare, there were no file reports of his time in Hyrule even though he was mentioned several times in Alice’s report; it was just the one page of info which was still missing pieces. (Seems he should have taken the whole file if he wanted to keep the info that bad.) …(Let’s check the video recordings.) Sure.

As I approached the record room the boss walked in from the other hall approaching the room as well. (Hide!) What, why!? (Just do it now!) I ducked behind the nearby trashcan and watched as he entered the record room; a few minutes later he came out with a small USB drive that he put into his coat pocket, once he left I went in and brought up any data I could get on Alice Blair. I was shocked to see there was no video data on Alice; I checked up Soren and found it came up with the same message. (He took all the data!?) He’s collecting everything on them…wait, is he-(I know what you’re thinking, go!) I rushed out of the room and back to the file room as fast as I could; when I got in I rifled through the A section to find that Alice’s file was gone now and when I went to get Soren’s file it was gone as well, he gathered up each of their files…but why? (Must have been something there he didn’t want others to see.) I guess our search ends here; it’s making me worried though. This is the first time I’ve seen him this worried and secretive…something about these two seem to freak him out. (…why though?) We’re out of information right now so we should probably wait until we can find more info. (Or break into his office.) I thought you were his friend!? (Regardless of that something is wrong here, besides, I’m not betraying him I’m just getting more info under his nose. It’s not the first time I’ve done this.) It isn’t! (Nope.) 

It took about two days but eventually I was called by Damien to assist him and traveled to the world of the mushroom kingdom to meet up with him for something; I was directed to the third area where I had to break through the cloud barrier to reach the ground level. The next second I heard two fingers snap and followed the sound to find Damien standing there; as I landed another person came into view on the other end…it was Soren!

Soren was here! (That means Alice has to be here to.) We can’t fight Soren! (Why not?) I looked at him and felt my mind begin to hurt, something about him makes me feel afraid and scared. (Snap out of it or give me control!) No!  
“Damien, you’re fighting him!?”  
“You should have known Lissa.” He gave me a cold stare as he said that.  
“I expected a different traveler…not Soren.” I looked at him and felt my mind retaliate with feelings of sadness and fear, what was wrong with me!? (Get a grip!) But…but…but, “I…I can’t fight him.”  
““You’re going to let this deal end then. We all have a reason for being here, if you don’t fight then that deal is void.” No! I can’t lose him now; I’ve come too far to stop! (Then get fighting or else.) …I’m sorry Soren…  
“…Okay…” I pulled out my knives I had as a back-up weapon and shot him as menacing a glare as I could, “I’m sorry Soren, but this is where you will die!”

After a bit of fighting he backed up and ran towards his allies and we gave chase; when he came into view we could see Alice and another black boy with them; he must be the traveler that Damien was sent to bring back. (Alice is here!) We followed them inside and stopped as they ran into the boss and now we had them cornered. (Time to finish this!) After a few guards and counters I was able to pin him to the ground and felt my emotions cycle all over the place as I stared at him. (WHAT’S WRONG!? KILL HIM!) I can’t he…he…he looks just like my brother. I felt myself begin to cry and just let myself cry as much as I wanted…I couldn’t stop it even if I wanted to.  
“Enough!” In that moment I stopped as the sheer force of his voice took me away from my own emotions; “This seemed to go a little different than I intended.” I got off of Soren to see he had stopped the black boy and Damien from fighting with a strange blue power; the boss walked over and looked down at me as I looked away afraid of what he would do, “You’re turmoil seems to be interfering young succubus.” Young succubus? (He thinks you’re me.) He passed by me but I couldn’t hear him anymore, he just proved that he intended for me to be taken over by the power. (I told you that before.) I…didn’t want to believe it…(Pay attention) As I was wiping away my tears I watched as Soren approached me and backed up slightly out of fear.  
“Lissa, are you okay?” What? (What!?)  
“A…Are you serious?”  
“Yeah, I wouldn’t ask otherwise.” The smile he gave me made my heart skip a beat, it felt like I was seeing my brother again. I pulled out a small handkerchief and wiped my eyes of the tears. Maybe…maybe he was.   
“…Hey, can I ask you a question?”  
“Go ahead.” He gave me a smile that said I could take my time asking this question.  
“…You see-”  
“We’re out of here Lissa.” I turned behind me to see the boss standing there with Damien and a portal back to the base behind him, he suddenly motioned his hand and I turned around to see Soren was stuck in a blue aura, “Sorry but I know what you’re thinking. I’ll be back to humor you later but for now I have some work to do with these two. Consider this your chance to pull ahead.” He pushed me along and I went through the portal as he followed behind; I looked back to see Soren look at the boss with a determined look.

As we entered the base I heard a loud cough behind me and look to see the boss frowning at me, “Lissa, I want you to get more practice with your power, so keep practicing and spend all your time at it, I’ll call you when I need you.” With that he walked away dragging Damien with him leaving me to go practice…I wasn’t going to though. I knew he just wanted me to be consumed by the power and I couldn’t let that happen. (Save your inner turmoil for later!) What!? (We have to go back in and follow Alice!) Why? (I saw something…something that couldn’t be what I thought it was…we have to go back!) She was freaking out and I don’t know why…guess all I can do is go along with it. I re-entered the portal and found myself back on the bridge we just left from; I could see the group at the end of the bridge and backed up so I wouldn’t be seen. (We’re going to have to track them for a few days. Just stay on their tails and out of their site.) Okay…how long will this take? (Until I know for sure.)

 

We tracked them for a few day and watched as they fought enemy after enemy and even took Damien down as he escaped, they were tougher than I think Damien or even the boss thought they would be; eventually they decided to pass through the next area in pairs with Alice going solo through the area. (Keep with her.) Got it. After twenty minutes she started moving and we had to rush above her to keep up; as she passed over a pipe we were surprised to see her sucked into it as she screamed. (Go! Something isn’t right here!) Okay! We went into the pipe and watched from the shadow as she fought the piranha plant doing well until she ended up dropping her katana being raised by her arm and tried struggling as the piranha plant charged up its fire blast. Time seem to stop as my vision slowed down and as the second passed it felt like an eternity; suddenly Alice seemed to change into a completely different as her long hair turned brown and short with blue eyes and a completely different outfit. Her eyes looked scared and I felt my vision fade as the succubus voice shouted in my mind. (NINA!!!!!!!!!!!!)

When I opened my eyes I was back in my bed at the base; someone must have brought me back. (…It was me.) What? You got control? But then why am I still here? (…) Succubus? (Call me Sukia.) Sukia? (That’s what she called me.) Nina? (You heard that? Makes sense, it’s not easy to hide everything forever…especially when emotions are that strong.) Who was Nina? (…A dear friend of mine…you know how I said that something about Alice was familiar?) Yeah. (…Her eyes, they looked just like hers and that moment sent me back to then…but I couldn’t be the only one to see it…why doesn’t he see it!?) Sukia, calm down. (…I can’t do this anymore.) What? (I can’t fight her, It would be like killing her again…I can’t do that.) What do we do then? (No…not what we do. What do YOU do?) Me? (She told me not to do this again and I already broke it…but I won’t again…she wouldn’t want this.) Wouldn’t want this? Wouldn’t want…this? Wouldn’t…want…this…he wouldn’t…would he? (I’m sorry Lissa…) After that Sukia went silent, no matter how much I baited or tried to contact her she wouldn’t respond, it was just me again…and it made me sad.

As I left my room I looked to my right to see Damien leaning up against it; he gave me a grin and threw some bread at me which I caught.  
“Hey Lissa, walk with me.”   
“Okay?” I followed skeptical of what he would do and we eventually came to the training area where he started practicing with his powers having impeccable control…and yet his eyes still shined.  
“Man, sorry for dragging you into that mess as my back-up guess I screwed up didn’t I?”  
“It’s okay, I didn’t really get punished.”  
“No, you didn’t…” He turned around to face me and suddenly his eyes seemed to glaze over instantly, “But you should have for that little return trip.”  
“Wha-” I felt him bring a blade made of his arm to my throat.  
“You think I wouldn’t see you during that last fight with them, you couldn’t avoid my detection after I escaped. Now what I want to know is why you followed them.” I felt a bead of sweat run down my face as he pushed the blade in, “Even if you don’t talk about it I’m going to give you a little warning.” The blade cut into my throat leaving a small mark, “Doing anything in secret while amongst us is a bad idea, and everyone can smell the self-control you have as soon as you walk in, you’re a factor that won’t last long if you continue with whatever you’re doing.” He reformed his hand as I dropped to the floor terrified of what just happened, “I’d wise up and just take that body if I were you Sukia. After all, you won’t last long opposing him.” He walked out of the training room as I sat there in shock at what just happened…it was clear that the longer I stayed here…the more danger I was in. But where could I go…brother…please help me…for the rest of the day I sat there crying my eyes out as the despair of my situation consumed me.


	22. Extra Chapter 2 (Outside)

Another short fluff piece

Cars zipped by as we waited for the green light to let us cross the street and head to the nearest park; thanks to our latest adventure Alice had the strength to get out of the hospital bed and head out for a few hours, the only exception was that she had to be rolled in a wheelchair to reduce any strain of energy to her legs…but it was nice to get outside with her, even if I had to wheel her around in a chair. I looked down at her to see she was looking around excited to be outside, after all that time in the bed it was expected that she would be excited at being able to feel the sun and wind on her face; it was weird to see her with such a wide smile on her face though considering that up until now I had only gotten either smirks or a giggle smile.  
“Soren, it’s green now.” Gareth said catching my attention from Alice and we rolled over the street to the green flourishing park that was alive and vibrant with the sound of chirping birds and the scurrying squirrels passing from tree to tree with great speed.  
“Come on, I want to see the whole park and lie on the grass feeling it between my feet.” Alice said overly excited at the notion of grass and trees; I wheeled her over to a nearby bench and Gareth and I sat down as Alice’s eyes darted to everything she could see and she bounced in her seat.  
“Calm down Alice, if you get too excited then you’re going to end up crashing and we’ll have to take you back to the hospital.” I said grabbing her shoulder to stop her from bouncing.  
“But I want to see everything around me, I love the outside world, everything is so much more vibrant and colorful up close than through a window and I want to see it all.” She said with a wide smile making me laugh, it was really adorable to see her so pumped and energetic just by being outside; but I had to keep her calm or else she might relapse and never be allowed outside…at least that’s what the doctor said.

“Every time with the ninja!” Alice yelled frustrated at the progress she wasn’t making at Gun Smoke, she made it to the fourth level but couldn’t take out the bounty Ninja Darts even with the shotgun as he kept disappearing and reappearing until she finally got hit with a shuriken and ended her run with the sad game over screen.  
“Not a very good marksmen eh?” Gareth said giving Alice a snarky look which she stuck her tongue at him.  
“I’ll have you know I’m a much better marksman than you axe flayer.”  
“Hey, my move is awesome!” I gave a sigh as they bickered needlessly over trivial points.  
“Gareth trust me, she is the best marksman I’ve ever had the pleasure of going up against in Wii Archery and losing against with a VERY wide point difference.” I said making Alive give Gareth a smirk of superiority.  
“Screw that, I’m better than you.” Gareth said getting pumped up.  
“Bring it! I’ve got just the game!” Alice yelled pulling out a copy of Duck Hunt and the pistol attachment. This might be too intense for this to continue.  
“I think we should all calm down for a minute and-”  
“No!” They yelled back not looking away from each other as Gareth loaded up the game; this was going to end badly. 

I left the room to let them concentrate as Gareth wouldn’t see it as a fair game if I talked or even sneezed while Alice would kill me if she missed a shot because I breathed; I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked to see a nurse with a clipboard looking at me.  
“Excuse me are you Soren?” She asked.  
“Yeah, that’s me.”  
“Then could I ask you to meet with Alice’s doctor down the hall for a moment.” This was weird, why would her doctor want to see me?  
“Sure, I’ll meet with them.”  
“Thank you, take a left and it will be the third door on your right marked, Doctor Verlais.” After that she walked away leaving me to head for the room she directed me to. Turning the corner I looked at the third door to my right to see it marked, Doctor Sartius. Wrong right, being left handed makes things a little disorienting with right and left; I looked at the other door to see it marked Doctor Verlais; here it is. I entered to see a woman with long shimmering brown hair and rounded glasses giving me a confused look.  
“I’m Soren…you called for me?” Her eyes lit up and then she gave me a smile and beckoned me into her office.   
“Nice to finally meet you, Alice talks about you a lot when we have our weekly checkup.” She said flipping through medical files until she pulled out a file marked, Alice Blair and set it on the desk, “I imagined you’d be taller though.” She coked her head and went silent for a minute.  
“…Um…why did you call me here?” I said feeling my face heat up as she stared at me. She blinked and then realigned her head.  
“Sorry, I have a knack for getting a little scatterbrained when it comes to looking at people.”   
“And you’re a doctor?”  
“Don’t worry, I’m certified and know when to focus.” Thank god, I was a little worried about her patients, “As to why I called you, I wanted to show you something.” She handed me a few papers with weird graphs on them that had a lot of medical terms that seemed to go in one ear and out the other for me, “Don’t worry about the words just look at the charts.” I looked at the charts to see they were documenting something over weeks; there was a spike of data growth in one week and then two weeks after that another large spike of data. The dates seem to line up with when we went on our adventure to Hyrule and then again to the Mushroom Kingdom…these must be the charts for her body strength growth, “As I’m sure you’ve noticed there seem to be large spikes of growth at certain intervals that seem out of place.” Crap, was she going to ask about how that happened? I can’t tell her anything, she’ll think I’m either lying or crazy, “But that’s for another department to look into, rather I would like you to notice the second chart.” This chart followed the same week by week measurement but the line seemed to decrease slowly as weeks dragged on between and after the Hyrule and Mushroom kingdom spikes in the last graph.  
“What’s this?”  
“I’m sure you’ve heard of Alice’s condition, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, it wouldn’t be so bad if her immune system wasn’t so weak leaving her in that bed for ten years to the day.”  
“…I know, trust me when I say I know all about it.” It wasn’t easy to hear again, even the first time I heard it from Alice it hurt; to think that one of my friends was stuck in a situation I couldn’t help with tore me apart every time I looked at it but I couldn’t believe she was weak. Even if it hurt to hear I couldn’t see her as weak, she’s the strongest person I know.  
“Well with the spikes in her body strength it seems to be affecting her immune system in a very good way.” Good way?  
“What do you mean?” I asked rising from my chair.   
“Calm down, I just mean that with her improved immune system she might be able to go outside.”  
“Really!? When can she?” Alice could go outside, maybe she could stand on her own.”  
“Well that’s up to you, as one of her emergency contacts you have a bit of pull on when she can.”  
“When did I become her emergency contact?” I don’t remember doing that?  
“Her parents gave us your contact info the last time they visited, so as of then you became one of the people responsible for her well-being.” Guess that’s why her mother asked for my number last time I talked with her, “Now I should probably explain why we haven’t let her out before these spikes in her immune system. Alice becomes a bit more excited when she gets outside, because of this her adrenaline skyrockets and her condition becomes worse. With this improvement in her condition were hoping her emotional level won’t be an issue…but we don’t want to push it, so I want you to go with her.”  
“Me?”  
“You are her best friend, we’re hoping that you can keep her calm and under control while she is outside.” So there hoping I can calm her if she gets out of hand?   
“If I can’t?” Her face turned a little more serious.   
“Then we’re going to have to keep her from going outside ever again.” So if I didn’t keep her from collapsing then she wouldn’t be allowed outside ever again…she loves the world outside though…I can’t fail at this.

“Let’s play soccer, no let’s play football, no footrace, long jump, something involving rapid movement!” Alice was like a completely different person when she was outside; she was smiling widely and talking a lot and trying to think faster than her brain could keep up with. It was like a bubbly airheaded Alice was in front of me instead of the cool, smart and level-headed Alice I was used to; it was kind of freaky to see.  
“Alice you can’t move too much or something might happen.” I warned making her pout…she never pouts!   
“But I’m outside for the first time in ten years and I can’t do anything except sit in this chair, what fun is that?” She had a point, there were only a few things you could do outside that wasn’t active. It was a lot tougher than I first thought it would be…I’ve got it!  
“Come on.” I grabbed her wheelchair and we left the park confusing Alice.  
“Where are we going?” Gareth asked also confused we left the park, “Aren’t we suppose to spend time at the park?”  
“We left the hospital, so for the next few hours I’m going to show Alice all the things we can do in this town.”   
“But the only thing I ever found interesting was the park.” Alice said slightly panicking.  
“Then I’m going to show you some of the best things I know about this town.”

“Where are we?” Gareth asked as we stood in front of a building with a sign that said Nickle-a-Play.  
“This is an arcade place that I play at when I get the chance, for three fifty we can come in and play as long as we want.  
“Actual arcade machines?” Gareth asked a little shocked, “Even Mortal Kombat!?” He was a bit more excited.  
“Even Mortal Kombat.”  
“What are we waiting for then!” Gareth said ushering us into the door; I paid for all of us to enter and we surveyed the long line of arcade machines that were laid out before us, “Wow they have so much. Asteroids, Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, Battle Toads, Street Fighter and- there it is! Mortal Kombat!” He hugged the machine weirdly freaking me and Alice out a little, “I’ve heard legends about this game and now I have the chance to pull off a legendary fatality with my own hands.” He started playing as I rolled Alice around the arcade machines.  
“More games? I’m outside of the hospital and we’re still inside.” Alice said with a sigh.  
“You know being outside is more than just the fresh air or a field, the world is wider than the fields you find and buildings like this are the gemstones that make it worth it. Without new places like this then you’re just wandering through a desert of nothing for eternity.” I watched as she looked up at me listening as I spoke, “But I will admit that an empty field is a great place to be when you want the serene quiet that this world offers. For now though, how about we enjoy ourselves with something new?” She looked back down and twirled her finger in her hair before nodding.  
“So what game are we playing first?” We spent the next hour playing different arcade games as Alice enjoyed the arcade more than she let on, during a game of Time Crisis 2 we decided to switch on deaths but it ended up being me and Gareth switching back and forth as Alice wrecked shop with her perfect aim and timing; I don’t know how playing Wii Archery gave her sharpshooter status with her aim! At the end of it all Gareth and I barely accumulated 500,000 points while Alice broke the high score with over 2,000,000 points to her name; she gave us a cocky smirk and holstered the gun like and old west movie hero blowing on the barrel and spinning it before putting it into the holster. Deciding to call Gareth’s challenge we challenged him to a game of Mortal Kombat and played a few rounds with Gareth coming out on top almost every match except for the few lucky matches I could muster; when we ended Gareth gave a bow and cheering of a winner reveling in his superiority over us at fighting games. Deciding to test my luck I played Pac-Man and found myself actually having some luck in avoiding the four ghost that were constantly on my tail; making it to the farther levels I could feel my heartbeat race and my sense sharpen as I stood waiting for the ghost to surround me so I could send them back with the large pellet. By the end I died on round 31 and wasn’t able to get the high score of over 1,400,000 and with my score of 393,570 I barely broke tenth place ; when I finished I gave a long sigh feeling my senses going back to normal and my heartbeat through my brain from the intensity I felt.  
“Not as good as I could do.” Gareth said boasting.   
“Really? Give it a try then.” I ushered him to the machine and he started playing. As he began he had some good strategy but was easily overwhelmed by the ghosts around game ten losing at game twelve with a score of 76,300 to his name, “You were saying?” He grumbled as I said that making me chuckle.  
“I’m still second best.” As Gareth said that Alice approached the machine and began playing, she played smart using the power pellets to her advantage and managed to get a few of the fruits and items staying on her toes and ending with a score of 100,340.   
“Make that third.” Alice replied wiping her hands. We all had a laugh as we finished up at Nickle-a-Play and headed back outside, “Where next Soren?” I knew what she would like.

“Ice cream!” I said presenting them to Baskin Robins; we entered and Alice and Gareth looked over the thirty one different flavors they could choose from.  
“I’ve never actually had ice cream before, what flavor should I get?” Gareth asked looking over every flavor in the bins.  
“Really?”  
“Being an orphan since birth makes it kind of hard to enjoy luxuries like ice cream but now I have the chance to try it.” Gareth replied scratching the back of his head.  
“I recommend something that you think will taste good then, choose something you think will taste awesome!” After I said that he gave a wicked smile.  
“I know just the order then!” I walked away leaving him to his laughing and approached the clerk.  
“I’ll take a soft serve vanilla with a waffle cone.”  
“Chocolate scoop with mint-chip on top in a normal cone.” Alice said giving her order to the person behind the counter.  
“I’ll have orange sherbet with rum raisin and lemon custard in a sugar cone.” We all gave him a confused look, “What? If I’m going for ice cream I’m going exotic.”…that’s insane.  
“That will be 15.75.” The clerk replied handing us our ice cream as I paid for them; as this point I would run out of all my reserve cash. I looked over to see Alice smiling as she licked her ice cream enjoying it fully and Gareth wolfing his ice cream down as his eyes squeezed shut probably accumulating a brain freeze, all the while he smiled…it was worth it.

“How long do we have left?” Gareth asked devouring his cone finishing his ice cream; I checked my phone clock to see it was close to five in the afternoon giving us about an hour left in the day and I knew just what to do.  
“Come on, I know how to finish off this day.” Gareth followed as I wheeled Alice towards a nearby field and in the distance I could see the field curve upwards into a hill top, “Up there.” I pointed to the top hill where the sun was starting to set into the hills.  
“How am I getting up there?” Alice asked and I crouched down in front of her chair beckoning her onto my back, “A-Are you crazy!?” Alice asked her face turning a beat red, “I may have let you put me in the chair but that’s it.”   
“Come on Alice; trust me it will be worth it.” She looked away for a minute then gave a sigh as she launched off her chair onto my back, I stood up clutching her legs as she wrapped her hands around my neck.  
“Just hurry you idiot.” Alice said quietly as Gareth and I climbed up the hill with Gareth carrying Alice’s chair so it wouldn’t be stolen; when we reached the top I placed Alice down on the grass on her back as Gareth collapsed into the grass with a loud sigh of happiness as I sat down next to Alice as she sat up. From the top of the hill we could see the sun turn red as it set into the mountains making the whole area a beautiful hue of orange.  
“I love this time of day.” Gareth said taking in the remaining sunlight, “But it’s the time after when the stars come out that is the best part of the day.”  
“Stargazing?” Alice asked.  
“Yeah, I can even pick out some of them.”  
“We’ll just have to wait then.” I said laying back in the grass and looking at the clear sky; Alice and Gareth joined me as we let the quiet of the end of the day overwhelm us and we listened as the crickets chirped and we even heard an owl hoot far off. 

The sun finally disappeared as the stars blinked into the sky one by one lighting up the night sky; it was beautiful to see the array of stars across the entire sky, Gareth pointed to a small cluster of stars catching our attention.   
“That one is the Big Dipper, next to it is Ursa Major and below that one is Leo Minor and Cancer with Lynx and Gemini right there.” As Gareth continued to name constellations I looked over to see Alice was slowly falling asleep; I looked at my clock to see it was about eight at night…crap! We had spent three hours on this hill sitting in silence; how the hell did that happen!? I began to stand up ready to round us up when Alice tugged at my jacket.  
“Thanks for today, it wasn’t what I thought we would do outside but it was even better. You were right; going to new places is better than an open field, I want to see more new places.” She gave me a smile as she started to nod off.  
“You were right to though, it’s nice to feel the grass and wind as we sit in silence; the time flies by as it happens.”  
“That’s the best part about it, you feel like time doesn’t exist as you let the world soaks you in and before you know it the day is over and you don’t feel like you wasted it, you have a feeling of…”  
“Harmony. Right?” I looked at her to see she had passed out and was breathing quietly; it’s been a full day, “Gareth.” He looked over at me and I pointed down at Alice who was sleeping and he chuckled quietly, “I think we’re done for the day.” He nodded his head and I picked up Alice slowly putting her into her wheel chair once we got back on cement ground.  
“I’m going to head back to the orphanage, you got this covered?” Gareth asked pointing to Alice.  
“Yeah, I got her.”  
“We should do this again; it was more fun than just sitting in the room.” I looked down at Alice and saw she had a smile on her face as she shivered; I draped my jacket over her and she stopped shivering continuing to breath as she smiled.  
“We’re definitely going to do this again.” I replied and Gareth rushed off towards his shared home. I wheeled Alice back to the hospital enjoying the quiet night and passing through multiple parks to avoid noisy roads and eventually found myself back at the hospital. I entered the elevator and got up to Alice’s floor entering her room to see her Mother and Doctor standing there looking at me tapping their foot; I was in trouble. Alice turned to the side and gave a deep breath still asleep as she clutched my jacket for warmth. Her mother gave a sigh as she picked her up and tucked her into bed; as they tried to grab my jacket she clutched it tightly not letting go; I gave a small wave to leave it and the doctor left after doing a quick check-up and her mother came over waving her finger at me.  
“If my husband had been here you probably wouldn’t be getting off this easy.”  
“I know.” If there’s one thing I remember it’s how scary and possibly murderous her father is.  
“This will be our little secret.” She replied with a wink and we left the room...but even if her father had been there it still would have been worth it.

The next day Gareth and I entered Alice’s room to see her fiddling with my jacket from yesterday; I coughed catching her attention and she jumped tightly gripping my jacket in her hands.  
“Something wrong with my jacket?” I asked teasing her.  
“Why do you have his jacket still?” Gareth asked sitting down in a nearby chair.  
“I woke up with it and I don’t know why, what did you do!?” Alice asked accusing me of something.  
“I didn’t do anything! Why do you always assume I did something when these situations pop up?”  
“Because somehow it’s always you so you must have some pull.”  
“That’s insane?”  
“A convenient excuse.” She gave me her usual glare and I felt myself start to laugh and then Gareth joined in, eventually Alice gave up and rolled her eyes at us tossing my jacket at me. Putting it back on I sat down next to her bed and we re-loaded up Gun Smoke with Gareth at the helm this run, “Thanks for yesterday.” Alice whispered giving me a slight smirk which I returned.  
“Anytime Alice.” For the rest of the day we sat back enjoying the show as Gareth played Gun Smoke barely getting by the third level and enjoying the time we were all spending together as friends for what time we had left…for some reason I couldn’t shake the feeling that our adventures weren’t over and the next one was closer than we expected.


	23. Gareth

Other people were always avoiding me or just treating me like garbage but I never let that affect me, I was the hero, maybe I would face hardships but in the end it would all be worth it. So I didn’t mind the hollow look in their eyes and bland personalities; they were just background characters in my larger story. As far as I cared they could be formless and husks and I wouldn’t care, the world was more interesting than any of them; at least beyond my world. With that feeling I will stare at the stars and continue to wish for my chance to be a hero and see those empty looks turn to praise and admiration at what I was able to do. 

My name is Gareth, at least as far as I know that’s my name, that’s what the house mother gave me when I was old enough to understand words. I don’t have a last name though; kind of the back draw of being an orphan from birth, there’s nothing to clutch onto your past life but that didn’t faze me like some of the kids that came in. When I turned five I would watch as friends around me would leave with a happy look on their faces and see other friends come in with despair and sadness permanently stuck on their faces. They would come around eventually but when I looked at their eyes I would always see a small hint of sadness in their pupils; the house mother said I always had a big heart and that’s why I could tell when others were feeling down. When others weren’t feeling there best or looking sad I always acted happy and tried to cheer them up; sometimes it worked while other times they didn’t even respond and continued to sulk…but that didn’t stop me! I wanted to be like the house mother; she cared about everyone and worked to make sure we were all happy as we stayed there; she helped us all with getting adopted and made sure that those who adopted us were good people. I remember when she turned away a husband and wife outright after five minutes, it wasn’t till later that I found out they only wanted to adopt a kid because they needed a happy family image to get ahead in their careers. That’s another reason I loved the house mother, she protected us and kept those who would try to hurt any of us away, she was our guardian and my hero.

As I watched friends come and go I grew up into a young man as the house mother would put it; two days before my thirteenth birthday was my last interview with a couple, the house mother dressed me up and made sure I looked clean as she took me to meet the couple. I talked with them about my hobbies and who I looked up to which made the house mother blush and they smiled and laughed as we talked. They loved me and I was all set up to leave with my new mom and dad as I waited the next day for them to come back…hours passed and even the house mother had a worried look on her face but then the lady from yesterday came in with a pained look on her face and a sad glint in her eye. The man had died when they were leaving the orphanage and now she had to prepare the funeral and put him to rest, I walked over trying to cheer her up but as I gave her a smile I felt a hand slap across my face and she gave me a look of disgust.  
“How dare you smile like that! This is all your fault!! WHY DO YOU EVEN EXIST?!!!” She screamed and I felt my heart jump in pain at that accusation…my fault; did he die because of me? The house mother demanded she leave and had to push her out as I sat there in a daze at what had happened; the mark on my cheek stung and I could hear those words ringing in my head, why do I exist? As I was held by the house mother I heard the chime of the wall clock and looked to see it was twelve the next day. I was now thirteen.

Turning thirteen changes the world around you drastically; from the day I turned thirteen the interviews were no longer coming and the other kids in the orphanage gave me looks of fear or distain and as I passed through the halls or played games in the main room I felt more alone than I ever did before. I didn’t let it faze me though, heroes never gave in and held strong in the face of adversity; that’s what the house mother would do and that’s what every video game hero would do to. With everyone acting so cold I spent most of my time playing games and emulating with those I played as; every game I played made me feel more like the fearless adventurers and selfless heroes that made me feel like I had potential if I never lost myself. It was calming and exhilarating to think there was more out there than just this world and I dreamed about it with every fiber of my being. I joined the boy scouts to gain this feeling and become more skilled…granted there was a girl scout portion I’m not particularly proud of but I had a goal to achieve. To be strong and fearless…to be loved by those around me and praised instead of treated like garbage everywhere I went; turning thirteen make people see you less as an innocent child and more as an untrustworthy teenager as they gave me shifty glances and scared glances. As I saw this everywhere I went the looks began to blend and become hollow of feeling, just a normal boring look I was used to seeing on everyone no matter where I went; just people who were hollow; background characters like Toad or shopkeepers in video games, just people that were there to be saved by a hero. I avoided people as much as possible and spent time at night enjoying the stars in the sky; the stars too far away for me to reach but told me that there was more out there for me and more chances for me to be a hero…to be like the one person who cared about me…my mother. Maybe she wasn’t my actual mother but the house mother felt like the closest thing to a mother I would ever have and the one person who was my hero and a main character in my life…at least until that day.

I was seventeen, at this point I didn’t even bother with other people and neither did they, as far as they were concerned I was another faceless person and I didn’t care…I didn’t care if they didn’t care about me, no one had to care about me. I only had one person I cared about anyway and I didn’t mind, she was the only one who needed to be a main character with me as far as I cared, she was the only one who knew I was there anyway and that’s the only person I needed to notice me. I fell asleep that night on the hill and woke up around the time that it was time for the house mother to make her rounds; I had to hurry back before she noticed I was gone and punished me when I got back. I rushed back in a hurry and opened the door slowly and tiptoed inside towards the sleeping room and was shocked to see mother making her rounds at the bed and she moved from one kid’s bed to the next. The next second passed by slowly as she moved from my neighbor’s bed to mine and then kept walking onto the next one. She had skipped my bed, as though I didn’t exist…like everyone else looks at me; in that moment she darkened and her eyes became hollow, she had become a background character, my hero was now a background character and I felt my heart shatter. No one cared; I was alone for the second time in my life…what’s that light?

 

The long brick roads, the towering castles, the clear sky and bottomless pits stretching along a long path; I knew where I was and I felt like I was given a chance, I looked around to see Goombas and Koopas roaming the land which meant that the Mushroom Kingdom was in turmoil and the princess was kidnapped. As long as I was here I could become a hero and be surrounded by those who know me…those who want me…those who don’t see me as a waste of a human being. Those who don’t scorn my existence…and whose eyes are not hollow.  
“Are you okay?” I sat up and looked to see a short man in overalls and a red hat looking at me; it was Mario, the hero of this world, the one who could take my dream away from me, “If not I’m going to rob you.” What!?  
“Rob me!?”  
“Oh, you’re okay, that sucks.” Was this really Mario; he seems less heroic and more…sleazy than what I imagined, “Well guess I’ll just go back to robbing houses.” As he walked away something in my brain told me to stop him and I outstretched my hand grabbing his overalls, “…Yes?”  
“Aren’t you going to rescue Princess Toadstool?” I asked eagerly awaiting his response; he burst out laughing at that question and after wiping away a fake tear he gave me a strange smile.  
“Listen kid, this kingdom is going under, no amount of rescue or diplomacy will change that, I’m getting mine while I have the chance and saying goodbye to this dump of a kingdom as fast as I can.” So he didn’t want to be the hero and he wanted to get out of here; seems like Mario is much less noble than I ever believed him to be, “That said with everyone abandoning their houses whatever is left over is mine as long as I get to it. If I’m going to run out I might as well make out like a bandit in the process.” He gave a dark chuckle as he said that and I felt the skin on my neck crawl as I stood there; something about Mario rubbed me the wrong way…but now I could take his place and be the hero!  
“Looks like it’s up to me to save the princess then!” I said triumphantly; Mario scoffed at my outburst.  
“As long as you don’t get in the way of my looting I don’t care.” As he walked away he stopped suddenly and turned around with a sly smile on his face, “That being said, we should work together on this venture, you clear the area of the enemies and I lift them of their valuables as well as any house valuables along the way, deal?” It sounded like a fair trade to me; thinking it over didn’t make my decision any less sure either so I shook his hand with a firm grip.  
“Deal!”

We walked across the first few areas without any problems and dispatched of most of the troops by kicking them over the pit; this would work better if I had a weapon to work with but for now all I could was punch them off the platforms as Mario did the same only adding kicks to his combos. In the clear moments between enemies I took the time to come up with a brand new name for myself in this world; if I was going to live here I was going to reinvent my identity and make a new name for myself, I’m thinking…Glitch. In this time I also decided to put my sewing skills to use and grabbed some yarn from the houses creating a handful of flags; if I was going to take down Bowser’s flags I was going to put up my own! We traveled from pole to pole eventually coming to the first castle which was leagues beyond the size I was expecting; I felt slightly intimidated as I stared at the massive structure but was jolted by Mario moving past me and entering the castle without a hint of fear. I followed behind and we walked into the castle which was devoid of enemies at all; walking further in I could hear a strange creaking sound and another sound of popping bubbles; what was happening in this place? We approached an area with a wooden bridge suspended over a pit of boiling lava, at the end of the bridge stood a Goomba who was larger than any other Goomba we came across.  
“Who are you?” He asked with a sense of authority in his voice, “No one may cross by order of King Koopa!” As he finished his decree Mario shot forward and punched the creature making it wobble back.  
“Grab the battle axe!” Mario yelled as he continued to wail on the goomba; I dashed past them and grabbed the enormous axe raising it up and swinging it wildly with no control; after a moment I decided to use the axes momentum and swung using it to my advantage. As I got the hang of it I heard a sharp slicing sound and turned to see my axe had cut across the goomba a spray of blood following the open wound as the creatures eyes rolled back and it fell to the ground limp and dead, “Good job, let’s keep moving.” As Mario passed me I got a thrilling feeling in my body and looked into his eyes hoping to see something but as I looked I saw a hollow look like the rest, even with this world I was still bound by my speculations and life in the last…guess it will all end when I am a hero. We moved on seeing the princess wasn’t in that castle and moved through the next area with ease, now with my battle axe I was able to rip through enemy after enemy with little resistance making our trek across the area even quicker than before; this adventure would be over soon at this rate, it wasn’t even the end of the day and we had already cleared the first castle! I slid down the pole after putting up my flag and looked back to admire my work; I was going to line this world with my new name. As we walked away I heard a strange noise and we turned around to see a boy had jumped onto the flag pole and pulled off my flag as he slid down the pole. He didn’t even notice us as he got in the position to run.  
“Hey! That’s my flag you jackass!” He stopped in shock at my outburst and looked at us in surprise before going into deep thought as he looked us over; he was starting to piss me off, “Earth to moron! Answer me!” He gave a small jolt and I looked down at MY flag in his hand, “What the hell did you think you were doing! You ripped my flag off of the pole!” I pulled it out of his hand and climbed up the pole sticking it back on top; I jumped back down as Mario was now examining the boy intently.  
“Who are you? You aren’t a resident of the Mushroom kingdom, and you don’t look like you’re part of Bowser’s army.” Really? I looked over the boy and he was right, he looked out of place…kind of like me.  
“My name is Soren and I was actually looking for you.” Soren…sounds like a fake name.

After an arrangement we agreed to let ‘Soren’ travel with us but he had one condition that seemed ludicrous to me.  
“You two are not allowed to kill any of Bowser’s men. No bloodshed, inner bleeding or decapitating limbs.” He didn’t want us killing any of Bowser’s men; that seemed crazy, they were the enemy and to be a hero I have to defeat any enemy in my way. He spoke with a sense of seriousness in his voice…but background characters don’t speak like that, he’s out of his bounds, “NO BLOODSHED!” With his outburst I felt my inner voice die down looking at his eyes, for once they weren’t hollow; I could sense an intense feeling behind them that I couldn’t determine; as he came back to his senses his eyes hollowed out again…what was that? After that outburst we agreed to his terms and moved as a group from then on; it didn’t take long for that to break apart though.

It took two days to fall apart; Mario was revealed to be a shapeshifter, I had attacked Soren, a girl named Alice had saved him and then Soren saved me, now I was traveling with Soren and Alice as we continued down the path. Alice said Soren had sparred me but I don’t understand why, the shapeshifter had said that he wanted to stop me…and I still believed that; his reasons had convinced me of that. I would have killed both of them there but something had caught my eye…their eyes. It wasn’t all the time but Soren and Alice would occasionally reveal a glint of something beyond the void of their eyes…they were the first people to have depth in their eyes in a long time…but why!? Everyone around me is a background character, small insignificant pieces in my story but these two were different; they showed more than their own desires, their eyes yearned and showed depth while fighting, they fought with purpose…but it wasn’t their own purpose. It showed mostly when they spoke to each other, a swirl of emotions and depth that I couldn’t believe could be conveyed through conversation…no, they’re just characters in the bigger story I play…I am the hero!

We continued to travel and as we did I learned more about Soren and Alice, their past was still a mystery but their emotions rang loud enough for me to pick up; Soren was dim and seem to carry on air of mediocrity about him, he wasn’t anything special and the way he talked and moved showed, he was average…and yet he wasn’t. He was overly trusting and wanted to know as much as he could find out about me…even in times where I felt skeptical I never completely distrusted him; something about him made me feel safe and when we laughed…it made me want to laugh along…like friends do. Alice was almost opposite compared to Soren; she came off cold and distrustful of me, whenever we walked she would glance back at me and then back to Soren; she seemed loyal to Soren and yet she was still cold to him as well. She wasn’t as cold as she was with me but she seemed almost harsher to Soren than to me; I’ve caught plenty of times when she hit him on the head, I thought they were friends!? As I looked at her eyes though they seemed to light up when she talked to Soren and when she laughed and smiled at him it completely changed her personality. Her eyes told the whole story in those few seconds of smiling; she became much less cold and likable…almost girlish which was weird considering her normal cold attitude; there was also a caring quality that seem to shine in her eyes more than anything, she really wanted to protect something important to her. These two seemed like more than almost anyone else…maybe they weren’t background characters, they couldn’t be heroes though…that’s my job!

…I’m not the hero, I can barely be considered a hero…Soren is a real hero; he fights with a purpose more than his own and gives his all to protect those around him. In my foolishness I was supposed to end up dead; burnt to a crisp and turned to ashes by a breath of fire…but then he appeared. He moved in front and took the creature out and in that moment after the battle the quality in his eyes seemed…unquestionably heroic; I had thought about this through our travels and I had decided to get rid of him if he ever showed any sign of being in my way but as I stood there in bewilderment I didn’t feel mad…I was sad. Looking back at both of our actions side by side I honestly feel like I was never a hero…I was just selfish. I was willing to take out Soren and Alice just because they might be in the way; I never even thought about their strife, all I wanted was to be a hero and these guys worked to protect each other…and me. Yet despite my best efforts…it happens again.

I was fighting Soren again with pure rage making my blood boil and fester, my mind was hazy and unclear, the only thing I remembered was the comment about my family and then my body became enraged. Family…the one thing I don’t have, because of my parents and because…because of me; it’s my fault that man died, she said as much and I deserved that slap…I wasn’t supposed to exist. Not as a human being and definitely not as a hero.  
“Don’t you want to be the hero? If you kill your own ally then what type of hero are you?”…He considered me a hero? No…he never let me give up on my goal, he still let me think I could be a hero…I can’t hurt him…I won’t hurt him or Alice! I felt my body return to me and looked to see Soren had pinned me down…my friend had saved me.

We stood there in despair as the boss and Damien disappeared, everyone was feeling like we failed and we couldn’t win…and they might be right, how can we go up against someone that powerful! As I looked at Alice and Soren I felt a different type of fire make my blood boil, as I looked at their defeated looks I felt my mind begin to race; we can’t give up, if we give up then they won’t be the same. I stood up and approached Soren.  
“You’re not giving up are you? If we’re going to save this world than we can’t give up.”  
“We already have, it doesn’t matter how far ahead we are, they’re always going to catch up and beat us.” He said that and I felt my mind agree but my heart seem to shout a different response.  
“Bull crap! We can’t just give up because we feel like we can’t win, if we don’t keep trying then they win and people die! Are you willing to let all those people die because you decided to give up, because I’m not! If you’re going to spare our enemies to save them then you better be ready to save those you’re trying to protect to! Got it?” I saw a spark light in his eyes and I felt my heart leap; looking behind Alice gave me a confident smile, these two meant more to me than I ever expected anyone else to, they had more emotions and were the main characters that I didn’t want to see fall; as far as I was concerned these two were worth protecting, both physically and emotionally.

We traveled as fast as we could across the land eventually meeting up with the actual Mario and Luigi, their eyes were hollow as I looked at them but I didn’t care, Soren and Alice were the only ones I wanted to see with depth in their eyes and they did, every time I looked at them they conveyed depth that didn’t disappear and I was fine with that, other people are still just background characters after all. As we traveled I told them my story and how I came to be here and they didn’t seem fazed, as I spoke they listened and at the end they told me that they wouldn’t let me die…that I was important to them…thank you so much…both of you. Eventually we made it to the end, the town just before the final castle and I felt exhilaration course through me, with this triumph I could become a hero…that’s what I’ve wanted this whole time and I was so close to it. As we moved through the town I came to a halt looking at a building and getting a feeling of deja-vu looking at it…that can’t be!

I rushed into my orphanage to see it was exactly like the one back home, from the rust to the broken wood planks everything was here, it was my home and prison; abandoned. As I stood there a shriek broke through and I looked at the direction it came from rushing towards it until I came upon a group of Toad children being surrounded by piranha plants. I felt my body go into auto-pilot and jumped in front blocking the toad children from harm…why though? I didn’t even think of being heroic before jumping in I just leapt without thinking, did my mind want me to protect these children…or my heart. Eventually Soren and Alice showed up and dispatched of the piranha plants…thank god. After everything was settled Alice and Soren explained that every world shows similarities and that no matter where I go I can’t escape them…so I would never escape myself…wait…why did I want to escape myself?

I stood there over Bowser with my ace in hand; the cloaked man had said if I slay Bowser than I can be the hero, I could achieve my dream with a single blow…but is that what I wanted? If I do this then I lose Soren and Alice, the two people who care about me, because of my selfishness…but it’s more than that. It took me this long to find out but what made me so interested in them wasn’t their depth…but their caring nature…like I use to have. The house mother always said I had a big heart…I cared about other people, not just my friends but everyone…for these past years I sealed away that heart to try to become a hero. I became cynical, self-centered, the hollowness in others eyes were just me rejecting them…belittling them and reducing them to background characters…but there are no background characters; everyone was a main character. That day when that woman slapped me I hadn’t become unimportant…I began to run from myself…and I think it’s time to stop running from Gareth. I lifted my axe over Bowser…and swung backwards cutting the cloaked guys left arm right off.

…I woke up and looked around to see I was back in my bed at the orphanage, back in my normal clothes and back to my normal self, it was over; I was back on earth and I was glad, I missed home.   
“Gareth!” I looked over to see the house mother with a shocked look on her face, “Oh thank god you woke up!” She rushed over and pulled me into a hug, “You were out late last night and when you came back you collapsed in the living room! You’ve been asleep all day, I was so worried!”  
“You knew I was out?”  
“I’ve known since you were fifteen, I let you do it because I knew you would be safe…but you worried me so much by just collapsing in the den! Are you okay?”  
“I’m okay.” As she pulled away I looked into her eyes and the hollowness from before was replaced with more depth than I could begin to comprehend, “Better than ever.” That’s right! I looked around franticly and looked up at the clock; 1;13 pm, perfect, “I’ve got to go meet up with someone, I’ll be back before bedtime though.” I said hastily getting out of bed.  
“Where are you going?”  
“I’ve got some friends to meet.” Before I left I turned around and gave…mother a big hug, “Thank you mother.” She returned the hug and gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead.  
“Be safe.” With that I left the orphanage and rushed towards the hospital cutting through some backyards and parks until I came upon the building; I rushed in and dashed up the stairs coming to a door with the name Alice Blair adorned on it. I opened the door and looked to see Soren standing there as Alice was in the hospital bed…it didn’t matter though, these were the people I trusted most and no matter what happens I will consider them to be…my family.

From that day on Soren and Alice became the reason people’s eyes became deeper than the ocean floor.


End file.
